Until the End
by Maruba
Summary: Sequel to Finding Our Midnight City. They thought it was over, that they would finally be safe and possibly tell the world of their existence and experiences. However, that will never be the case. As long as someone can find someway to use their powers for war, they will never be left alone. They will never be safe. Read Finding Our Midnight City before reading this. Trust me.
1. Prologue

a/n Hey! So I decided to do a sequel to my fic, "Finding Our Midnight City". If you haven't already read it, I'd advise going to my profile and reading the story now so you understand kind of what the fuck is happening in this one.

Disclaimer: It's called FANfiction

* * *

Bright eyes, flicking around in the darkness. A bright, sharp sword glinting in the moonlight, faded with the rusty colored tinge of blood. Behind this creature, on the ground, bodies of dead children, darkness oozing out of them. Children who'd had gifts, powers, struck down in their path. To protect them, he said. The save them from the monsters that plagued his own existence since he was a very young child.

He wiped his own sword clean and put it in its holster. He walked away from the carnage, not bothering to look back at the innocent bodies. There was no point. Nothing he could do now could bring them back, and even if he could, it was better this way. It was better for them to be dead than to have to suffer the curses their powers gave to them. In a world that wanted to destroy their humanity, it was perhaps best if they just never existed in the first place.

The moonlight illuminated the ground around him, creating a long silhouette into the night, a monstrous figure that he felt was very fitting. He was born with powers, abilities, and had been shaped through years of experimentation and torture into the ultimate weapon. He killed. He killed people of all types, children even. Especially children.

But was he really a monster? He stopped walking to consider this point, wind blowing through his hair. The only sound around him was the soft rustling of the leaves in the trees, which had just begun turning the color of fire and falling to the ground. Was he a monster if he was trying to save them? He wanted them to have a better life than he did. Their only chance of that happening, now that their powers had been discovered, was that the children die before _they_ got their hands on them.

The monster began to walk again, his path barely illuminated by the full moon above him.

* * *

OKAY SO I HAVE AN EXCUSE AS TO WHY THIS CHAPTER WAS SO SHORT! It's called... A PROLOGUE. There you go. Pleeease r&r and I should have chapter 1 up tonight.


	2. Cloudy Diners

a/n See, I told you I'd get chapter 1 up by tonight. I'm going to the hospital tomorrow for an endoscopy so I don't have to go to school! I mean...it's not the best reason... BUT NO SCHOOL! Also, this is a direct continuation from the epilogue of FOMC.

* * *

Xigbar walked back to his car from Luxord's grave site. He was getting lunch with the rest of his friends, the people he'd grown up with, excluding Larxene, Roxas, Lexeaus, and Xaldin, who had prior engagements they needed to get to. That meant is was just him, Saïx, Axel, Zexion, Demyx, Vexen, and Marluxia. They were going to their usual lunch spot, a diner where they had their monthly get togethers. They all quickly ordered their food and settled in, no one quite ready to talk.

"So how is everyone doing?" Axel finally asked, trying to start up conversation. They were never the most talkative bunch amongst each other. "Demyx, how's the music thing going?" The mullet headed man looked up, blinking a little bit, clearly having not been paying attention.

"Oh, it's going great!" Demyx said. "Zexion has helped me write some of the lyrics and I got signed. I'm going to start recording an album soon. And Zexy's book is doing really good. We might be able to get an actual house soon."

"I'll be excited to move out of that dingy little apartment." Zexion muttered. Xigbar laughed a little, having heard that, but inside he wasn't happy. He'd wanted to have these moments with Luxord. Getting a dog, an apartment, a house. All these different experiences. "I'll be leaving for my tour in Japan in a few days. I'll be gone for about a month, maybe a little more. I don't remember."

"Oh so the great Zexion isn't so great after all." Marluxia said in a mocking tone. Zexion sent him a glare, and Saïx glared at them both to make sure nothing bad started at the table. "Fine, I'll leave him alone."

"Hey, Vexen." Xigbar said, trying to get the attention of his long haired friend. The man looked over him from his plate. He'd been paying attention, but Vexen was still just in his head. Ever since that...night, Vexen had been a little bit spaced out. Almost broken, or at least jarred slightly. "How are the kids at your facility? I've been thinking about visiting."

"They're fine. We have this new boy, Cloud." Vexen said. "He doesn't talk much, but we managed to get most of the important information out of him. He's nine years old and has the ability to read other people's memories."

"We can't get any information as to where he came from though." Marluxia continued. "He showed up on our doorstep a few nights ago and only said his name and that this is the only place he could come. We tried to find out what happened but he just stared at us whenever we tried. We ended up just feeding him and put him in a room with Squall-"

"Leon."

"Right, Leon. Anyhow, that's the big news at the facility."

"Do you want me to come over sometime when I don't have work?" Xigbar asked. "You know me. I'm pretty good with kids."

"That's true. Maybe we should make an appointment. Schedule your time in here." Vexen said, handing him a planner. Xigbar found a time and quickly filled it out. Apparently he'd be taking a trip to The Radiance Facility, a name they'd all come up with to express the light and pure intentions behind the research Vexen was doing there while caring for the children.

"How are you doing?" Demyx asked a bit quietly once everyone had set up kind of separate conversations. "I know it's been ten years, but you still seem to be taking Luxord's death really hard. Maybe you should try and talk to a professional?"

"I don't need to." Xigbar said calmly. The blond looked like he was about to argue with his friend, but seemed to decide against it. "You just...you don't understand. Remember how it felt when Zexion was captured?" Demyx nodded. "That's how I've felt everyday for ten years, except there's nothing I can do to save Luxord. He's already gone and it's my fault."

"But it's not-"

"Yes it is." Demyx was silent, and Xigbar knew it was because he didn't want to argue with his friend, not because he agreed with him. "I could have saved him sooner, I could have gone renegade, I could have killed Tseng sooner, I could have moved on my own. There are so many things I could have done and didn't do that would have saved him, but I didn't do a single one of those. It's my fault he died. I loved him and I killed him."

"If that's what you want to think..." Demyx said, turning away to join a conversation between Zexion and Axel. Xigbar put on his fake smile and continued listening. He'd be okay. He missed his blond. He _killed_ his blond, even if he didn't mean it. If he'd only noticed Tseng sooner, then Luxord would be here next to him, sipping tea and laughing at how irritated Saïx was getting at Demyx's antic. He looked and Demyx and gave a bit of a real smile. Demyx was a good friend. Not a lover, but definitely a friend.

He looked out the window, and almost missed a white suit walking past the window, dirty blond hair and a regal look. It almost seemed for a moment that the man was staring at them. Xigbar's brow furrowed but he shook his head. He was probably just mistaken.

Those days were over.

* * *

Well, I hoped you liked this. I was listening to my Hard Rock station on iTunes and The Struts "Could've Been Me" came on and I don't really know if that counts as hard rock but I couldn't help but think of Demyx when I listened to it.


	3. Shadows in the Park

a/n Alright...chapter 3... My endoscopy went well by the why. It was the first time I'd ever gone under anesthesia and I also discovered how much I hate laughing gas. According to my grandma, who was taking care of me so my dad could work, I started speaking Spanish when I woke up, which is kind of hilarious cause the closest thing my family has to any hispanic/latino blood is basque. I have taken up to Spanish 2 though, so I'm nowhere near fluid but...I manage.

* * *

Vexen finished making breakfast and began setting it out for the children in his care. He and Marluxia had been running the shelter for a few months now, and they had five children in their care. Yuffie, the youngest at six with easily the most unpredictable powers, had the ability to turn invisible. What Vexen had discovered was that she was less actually making herself invisible and more that when she willed it, the light reflecting off her body wouldn't reach the eyes of the people around her, meaning her power was light based, kind of like Roxas's.

Cloud was his newest charge, at the age of eight. The boy didn't talk much, but his power was classified as mental, like Zexion's. However, well Zexion was able to create illusions, Cloud was able to read the memories of others. Vexen had yet to understand how it worked. Was it possibly emotional brainwaves that somehow managed to be incredibly specific? Did his aura encompass that of others?

Leon was the only other boy at the shelter, and the first child they took in. He was nine, and also their eldest. His registered name was Squall, but he refused to go by it. He said he wanted a new life, a new start, with a new name. Leon's ability was...problematic for Vexen. The boy was able to open portals, taking him from one side of the shelter to the other in seconds. Vexen believed it had something to do with simply opening a way into another dimension where the distance was merely a few centimeters, and coming back out the other side. Of course, he had yet to actually _prove_ there were other dimensions.

Aerith was another of their girls, seven years old. Her powers hadn't exactly been categorized, as Vexen didn't know exactly what to label them with. Her primary ability involved healing. She could heal other people, animals, and plants. However, she couldn't heal herself, which had led to complications as she was easily the weakest of the children.

Finally, there was Tifa. She was eight years old and an incredibly strong girl, the first girl who came to the shelter, shortly after Leon. Her ability was one Vexen thought was particularly astounding, the ability to change her very physique. This usually took place in creating strong punching gloves that had destroyed shelter walls before. She was also the only child yet to summon a weapon, in the forms of her gloves.

The children filtered in one by one, each taking a seat at the table and beginning to eat their food. Marluxia came out after them and grabbed a cup of coffee.

"When is Xigbar coming?" Marluxia asked.

"Sometime after lunch." Vexen replied. He quickly wiped off Yuffie's face, knowing she would never do it himself. The girl was incredibly messy and childish, and never cleaned herself. "Cloud, he's going to talk to you, okay?"

"Is he the pirate?" Cloud asked. "He looks like a pirate."

"Cloud how many times have we told you to not look in our memories." Marluxia scolded him.

"I don't mean to." The boy muttered.

"Well you need to not do it to Xigbar." Vexen said, eating his food. He wasn't the best with children, but these ones needed somewhere to go and it gave him the opportunity to study children with powers. It was a good trade off, so he dealt with it.

* * *

Xigbar knocked on the door and blinked a little in surprised at the frazzled Vexen opening the door. Marluxia could be seen in the back writing something on papers, likely business oriented, while Vexen was left to deal with five very powerful children. Xigbar had never seen Vexen in a state like this, but considering the situation he was in, it was understandable. However, Xigbar certainly didn't envy him.

"You! Take the blond!" Vexen yelled, pushing a small blond child. "Go to the park or something!" The door was slammed shut in his face, and Xigbar looked down at the small child. A pair of sky blue eyes looked back up at him, and the kid, presumably the 'Cloud' Xigbar had told about, began walking down the sidewalk.

"Hey!" Xigbar called after him, catching up quickly because the boy was...well, a child. "What're you doing buddy?"

"I decided to mosey down to the park." Cloud said. "Vexen said we could. I saw you in his memories, but he's better at building walls than most people. Are you a pirate? You look like a pirate."

"A pirate? As if." Xigbar said with a small laugh. "That would be pretty cool though. Nah, kid, I run a restaurant with-"

"With your friend Xaldin." Cloud finished. "You two took a long time to be friends though, because you both loved the same person. His name was Lu-"

"You're pretty creepy, you know that kid?" Xigbar said. Cloud shrugged and jumped up onto a swing. Xigbar sat on the swing next to him, swinging himself lightly with his own foot. The boy next to him swung a bit and looked up at the sky, sighing a little. "You have a lot of questions don't you?" The boy nodded. "How about we trade, a question for a question. I'll go first. Where are you from."

"If I don't answer the question do I not get to ask one?" Cloud asked. Xigbar nodded. "...Fine. I used to live in some slums with my older brother Zack. Who was Luxord?"

"Luxord was...a very important person..." Xigbar said. "He was very special." Cloud nodded, though of course the child had a limited understanding of the specialness he was talking about. "What happened to your brother."

"He...he made me run away while he fought the monster." Cloud stopped his light swinging and stared at the ground for a while. Xigbar reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, but the harsh glare he received notified him that physical contact was...less than appreciated. "What happened to Luxord? You're blocking that part of your mind, like you don't want to remember it. I can't get to it."

"Good. It's not something a kid like you should see." Xigbar looked up at the sky, not quite sure how he should explain the event to the boy. Cloud was likely already familiar with death by the sound of it, but Xigbar wanted to be careful. "He's...gone."

"You mean he's dead." Cloud said. They were both silent for a while before the boy spoke again. "Zack is dead too."

"I thought so." Xigbar nodded. "Anyway, my turn. What do you mean by monster?"

"I don't want to do this anymore." Cloud said, poison practically seeping out of his voice like poison. Xigbar was a little astounded by how quickly the boy's attitude had changed, but he nodded nonetheless. He couldn't force the child to answer his questions. It was great he managed to get the child to say anything at all. "The monster wants to come back."

"What are you talking about?" Xigbar asked.

"He said he was protecting Zack from scarier monsters. Monsters that wants us to kill other people." Cloud looked away to the small group of trees nearby. It was then that Xigbar noticed the array of shadows near the trees. "Those aren't the same as the monster. I think they're here for both of us."

"It's okay kid, I'll protect you." Xigbar said, standing up. "Stay behind me." He summoned one of his guns and began walking towards the group of trees, Cloud keeping close to his leg. "Come out now and I won't kill you!"

"Xigbar." A voice came from behind him. Xigbar turned to see a man in a with a mustache and beard and slicked back black hair. The man was dressed in a dark blue business suit with a red tie, but was entirely unarmed. Xigbar looked behind him and saw the shadows were not people, but in fact oddly shaped robots. He furrowed his eyebrows.

"What do you want?" He asked the man, who crossed his arms.

"My name is Reeve Tuesti, an agent of Rufus Shinra, and I am here to take you into custody."

* * *

So, what do you think people? I played Spooky Scary Skeletons for pretty much the entire chapter. I don't understand the fact that this cured whatever writers block I had.

...I think I breathed in too much laughing gas my head feels numb...


	4. Shinra

a/n I would've written more but I have work on Saturdays. I'm going to try and write as much as I can tonight cause tomorrow my sister and I are making Sans and Papyrus masks so we can dance wearing them to Spooky Scary Skeletons at school. If you can't tell, we're pretty awesome. Anyhow, that's going to take up most of day with the crafting and choreographing, so yeah. I'm also kind of exhausted.

* * *

"My name is Reeve Tuesti, an agent of Rufus Shinra, and I am here to take you into custody."

"Custody? What are you talking about?" Xigbar yelled. "Who the hell is Rufus Shinra?"

"Oh, they never told you about us." Reeve said. His arms stayed crossed, and he didn't move an inch, unlike the robots that were closing in around them. "Rufus Shinra is the leader of the group that backed the research of Professor Hojo, whatever good that did us. Now with you all out in the open, I'm charged with rounding you up or _taking care of you_ so the public doesn't find out about the ongoings of our company."

"Wait what ongoings?" Xigbar asked, taking a step closer. Reeve stared at him and dropped his hands to his side. A robot grabbed Xigbar's own arm and he looked at it. It's dead, soulless eyes were boring into him. It was almost frightening. He turned back to Reeve. "What did you want us for?"

"That is none of your concern."

Xigbar wasn't pleased with this response, and he ripped his arm away from the robot, which attempted to grab him again. He stayed away and pointed his gun at it, shooting its head off and quickly summoning the other gun. He needed to be able to properly defend Cloud from the other robots and Reeve. He shot another robot that came near them and stunned the other two, turning once again towards Reeve only to notice that the man hadn't moved an inch. He moved towards the man, guns raised and prepared to fire, when suddenly Reeve's hand twitched.

A third robot drilled up out of the ground and wrapped its "arms" around the man and child. Reeve walked up to them as they struggled.

"You didn't notice it, did you." Reeve said. "You can't sense them, not them I can. Not like all the agents can." He tapped his temple. "A chip in our brains. I designed it myself. It senses the energy that comes out of us. I'm like you though. I have powers." He moved his hand again slowly and the robot loosened its grip a bit, making it so Xigbar and Cloud at least weren't in pain. "I control metal. That's how I control these robots."

"Why do you support them? Tell me what they want with us!" Xigbar demanded, struggling with new vigor. Reeve's hand snapped shut and the robot once again tightened its grip.

"They did the same to him they did to you and your friends." Cloud said, eyes shining bright. The adults looked down at him, having temporarily forgotten him. "But he didn't get to escape. They beat him and tortured him and they forced him to kill everyone he cared it about." Cloud's eyes were wide. "They _broke_ him."

"They didn't break me." Reeve said calmly. "The made me something better than myself. They gave my powers a purpose."

"You can help us study our powers!" Xigbar exclaimed. "What ever they've done to you, it doesn't have to be permanent. You don't have to follow them!"

"I don't like how this organization is run, I admit." Reeve nodded. "And I don't quite like my other agents. We all agree that Hojo that was a psychopath. However, I have been charged to return you, your comrades, these children to one of our facilities where you will be reintroduced to the program or terminated, if tests deem you beyond rehabilitation."

"Well, I'm afraid that will have to wait." Xigbar said. It was then that Reeve seemed to notice he'd unconsciously loosened the robot's grip. The scarred man grabbed Cloud and teleported them both to the shelter. They appeared in the middle of the social room, everyone staring at them. Xigbar wasted no time. "We have a problem."

"Well?" Vexen asked. "Is that problem the fact that you don't know how to elaborate?"

"As if! I wish it were that simple!" Xigbar dusted himself off while Cloud walked off to go isolate himself. "Someone named Rufus Shinra is after us. Apparently he's the one who backed all of Hojo's research. He wants us returned to the facilities and tested to see if we're candidates for rehabilitation."

"What?" Vexen shouted. Marluxia's pen dropped to the table, both of the adults looking at them with wide eyes. Fortunately none of the children were in the room to hear Xigbar. "They want us back? We killed Hojo! We're done! We escaped!"

"No we didn't Vexen. Hojo was just the beginning." Xigbar looked down and took a deep breath. "I'm going home. I'll email you a report of everything I was able to get out of Cloud. Keep an eye out for robots and a man named Reeve Tuesti." Xigbar turned and walked out of the shelter.

* * *

Cloud sat on his bed, looking at his right foot as it swayed slightly back and forth. Leon, his roommate, was outside with the girls, leaving Cloud by himself. His mind was spinning as it went over what just happened, what he'd seen in that man's head.

A flash of light suddenly blinked in his eyes and it felt like there were bees in his head. He fell off the bed down to his knees and clutched his head in response to the painful buzzing. Flashes of dark streets and dim yellow lights played before his eyes, followed by pain and the site of blood. Above him was a monster with glowing eyes.

And then it all suddenly stopped, and he discovered he was merely staring at his carpet.

* * *

I promise this story isn't actually as weird as it must seem. I'm sorry if Reeve seems OOC. It's been a little while since my last play through of FFVII and my only experience outside of that is watching scenes from Dirge Of Cerberus, which seems so fun to play holy shit. Anyhow, please r&r and tell me what you enjoyed and what improvements I could possibly make.


	5. Dancing with Silver

Until the End Ch 5

a/n So I'm finally on break so I'll be able to write more. Let's see if I remember any of I wrote in my notebook cause I'm at my friend's house in Southern California and I left my notebook at my home near San Francisco.

* * *

Axel spun in front of the mirror of his studio, practicing as he waited for the kids to start showing to the afternoon dance class he taught. He had about an hour to wait, may as well spend it perfecting his form. Saïx was sitting at a desk near the dressing rooms doing paperwork for his own company. Axel spun once again, ending in a flourish and receiving a mildly sarcastic applause from Saïx.

"I know, I'm amazing." Axel said, giving a long bow. He turned to the door right as the bell rung to notify him that people had just entered the establishment. A man and a woman, to be percise. The man wore a blue suit with a red tie and had black hair that was slicked back into a ponytail. The woman had styled blond hair and wore a red dress with red heels. "Oh, I'm sorry. The adult class doesn't start until the evening. If you and your friend want to come back then I'd be happy to show you some moves."

"Don't worry, we're not here to dance." The woman said. "My name is Scarlett, and this is my associate Reeve." She motioned to the man behind her. "We're a pair of reporters following a Mr. Zexion Ienzo on his book tour. We know he's going to Japan but for the life of us we can remember where. We know you're a friend of his, so we thought maybe you knew?"

"I'm afraid not." Axel said. "He's trying to keep it as private as possible. You have to buy a ticket."

"Well, our boss has yet to buy our tickets." Scarlett said. Axel tried to keep an eye on Reeve, but something kept his eyes drawn to the blond. Well, she seemed like more of a threat anyway. "So what class is next, if not the adult?"

"Kid." Axel responded. "I only have a few students in that class, mostly girls. There's one girl, Naminé, she's great. She's actually my best friend's daughter." Roxas had gotten married a few years ago to a boy by the name of Xegis, and they'd adopted a girl named Naminé. Axel adored her.

"She sounds wonderful." Scarlett said. "Well, my associate and I should be going. Thank you for your time." She turned and walked out the door, Reeve following her. That's when Axel realized that was the first time he's noticed Reeve since Scarlett had started talking.

* * *

Reeve got into the passenger seat of the black sedan Scarlett drove when the pair were on jobs. He wasn't allowed to drive the sedan, as Scarlett had claimed it as her "baby". He's was pretty sure she'd bite even Rufus's head in two if he dared to touch the car.

"Did you get the papers?" She asked, starting the car. Reeve nodded and pulled out a collection of papers that listed the dates and locations of Zexion's book tour, all of which had been in Axel's file cabinet. "Congratulations of finally being useful."

"Congratulations on finally having a situation in which your power is useful." Reeve calmly said back, flipping through the papers. "The other place where forcing other's attention on you might be useful is stripping."

"Maybe you should have your boss give me a call then." Scarlett responded. Reeve was usually a kind and mild mannered man, but Scarlett couldn't work with a partner who couldn't bite back, and thus Reeve had adapted. "At least I can fight on my own, instead of relying on those metal monstrosities that you called friends."

"At least I have friends that haven't seen me naked." Reeve finally found the paper with the nearest date. "We're going to Japan."

"Very specific Reeve."

"Tokyo, Shibuya district. Call Rufus and have him send me money so I can buy tickets."

* * *

"Yuffie stop messing with your food." Vexen scolded, wiping off the young girls face. She whined and tried to push him away.

"Stop it!" She whined again. "Just let me eat in piece old man."

"Not until you learn some damn manners!" Vexen hissed and continued his wiping till the girl's face was clean. Marluxia chuckled and shook his head. Every other child was eating peacefully and neatly. It was always Yuffie that was the problem, and Vexen never seemed to be able to be able to ignore it. "What are you laughing at you pink haired idiot?"

"Nothing Vexy." Marluxia teased, and went back to eating his salad. Dinner with his husband and their "children" was always an interesting experience. He was about to open his mouth to speak again when he heard some shuffling on the roof. The adults looked up at the ceiling and the children went quiet. "Vexen stay here while I go outside."

"Not a chance." Vexen said. "Either we both go out or neither of us."

"It could just be a cat." Marluxia said. "And if not, I can handle myself perfectly fine."

"Shit still happens you vegetable." Vexen said. "Leon you're in charge." The adults moved towards the door at the sound of something, or someone, landing on the path in front of their door was heard. Vexen summoned his shield and opened the door, Marluxia behind him with scythe in hand. They both stopped and stared with wide eyes and the figure before them.

Standing in the moonlight was a tall man with flowing silver hair and bright blue green eyes. He had an unusually long katana at his side and he stared at them with a gaze that did not make any hatred apparent, but instead almost seemed like an arrogant type of pity. The most outstanding thing about him though of the single black wing that was folded neatly behind him.

"Move aside." The man commanded. "I'm here to save the children."

"From what?" Vexen questioned. "We've saved the children ourselves. Who are you!"

"A fallen angel here to bring these cursed children to salvation." The man said. "And by the look of it, you both too. How can they be saved if they're still alive?"

"Are you saying you plan on killing these children?" Marluxia seethed.

"That's how you could put it." The silvette shrugged. "You both as well. You'll be never be safe from them so long as you are alive."

"Who is 'them'?" Vexen questioned. He was answered with a slash from the katana, and only just moved his shield up in time. He pushed the man back and moved so Marluxia to rush out, attacking the taller man himself.

The scythe and the katana struck each other several times before Vexen shot ice underneath the man, following him as he jumped back. The man ran at him again, poised to strike, and Vexen shot more ice at him, bringing up his shield to cover himself. Marluxia slashed at the man's feet, and the man turned on him, ready to kill. Vexen quickly took the opportunity, bashing him in the back. The man looked back at him, but didn't attack.

"I will be back." The silvette warned, a jumped off into the night, invisible in seconds. Vexen panted, willing away his shield. Marluxia ran to his side, willing away his scythe.

"Are you okay?" The pinkette asked the blond, who nodded. "Who the hell was that."

"I-I know..." The pair turned to see Cloud, who was standing in the doorframe, eyes wide, as though he'd seen a ghost or some sort of demon. For all the adults knew, he had. "He killed my brother."

"What's his name Cloud?" Vexen asked. "We need to know now."

"Sephiroth."

* * *

Heh heh...sorry this took me so long.


	6. Holes

a/n Having a work day while my mom wraps gifts for strangers. I would help but I'm not talented and most of the people who ask to have their presents wrapped are rich people who expect perfection and I'm just not willing to put up with that kind of attitude. And for anyone who's curious, Xegis is my friend's OC. I'm starting to get more comfortable with putting OCs in stories.

* * *

"Cloud! Hurry up!"

The blond looked up at the sound of Tifa's voice. The girl was waiting with his other housemates at the sidewalk. It was the first time in a week the children had been able to convince Marluxia and Vexen to allow them to go to the park alone. Sephiroth had really shaken up the adults, and to be honest it had shaken up Cloud himself.

"I'll be there in a second!" He called back. "I have to find Yuffie!" He pushed through some bushes, trying to locate his small friend. They'd been playing hide and seek, something she was amazing at. Cloud was going to be furious if she'd just turned herself invisible.

As he stepped further into the bushes he began to feel a pulsing pain in his head. He gripped it tight and whimpered, eventually falling to his knees. His eyes shut tight and he bit his lip.

 _Bright lights shown around him. He was running as fast as he could through the night, paired with street lights that illuminated his path like lanterns on the road to hell. He could hear someone running behind him and he growled, turning. He pulled forward his energy and held up a large...sword?_

 _Sword...when was he able to summon a sword?_

 _"Cloud!"_

 _"Cloud...?"_

"Cloud! Are you okay?!"

He shot up off the ground, looking around wildly and accidentally knocking someone down. He looked down to see Aerith, who stood back up and brushed off her dress.

"Sorry..." He muttered.

"Cloud, are you okay?" Tifa asked.

"I'm fine." He said. "Let's just...go find Yuffie, okay?"

"I found her." Leon said from some bushes in front of them. The kids moved to walk to where he was, but stopped when he put out a hand. "I don't think you want to see." Aerith stopped, but Cloud and Tifa ignored him, walking to where he was. Tifa gasped, and Cloud felt his blood run cold.

Before them, lying dead on the dirt with her throat slit open, was Yuffie.

"Who would do such a thing?!" Tifa cried out. "She was a child!"

"Cloud, do you think it was Sephiroth?" Leon asked. Cloud nodded numbly. "Maybe Aerith can-"

"You can't heal death, Squall!" Cloud shouted, turning on his friend. He immediately regretted it when he saw the hurt and anger in the other boy's stormy eyes. "Sorry but...Yuffie is gone...we can't bring her back. We just need to tell Marluxia and Vexen."

* * *

"So, why aren't we trying to rehabilitate this one?" Reeve asked, standing on the balcony looking down on Zexion's book signing. It all looked very professional, with an audience set up and a podium. People were quietly chatting with each other while the young illusionist set up at the podium.

"Well, we don't _really_ need this one's power." Scarlett responded, snuffing out her cigarette on the railing. "Besides, perhaps if we kill one of their own, they'll be a little more willing to...negotiate."

"Well, yes, but isn't this a little extreme?" Reeve suggested. "I mean, maiming could easily get the same results."

"Less garuntee though." Scarlett said. "Now get ready to summon your walking garbage cans." She summoned her weapon at her side, a machine gun. Reeve had always something more subtle would suit her. Like needles filled with tons of rattlesnake venom.

"Scared you can't keep up?" He said with a small smirk. Scarlett shot him her middle finger and aimed.

* * *

Zexion had just opened his mouth when the shots began. Suddenly there were screams everywhere, and a sharp pain in his arm. He quickly ducked behind the podium and covered his wound, applying pressure. He hissed in pain and tried to drown out the screams of the people around him.

He sent out several illusions of himself, all running in different directions. He hoped people were getting out alive, but he began to hear the sound of crunching, scraping metal, and even more bullet fire. He looked out with wide eyes to see robots tearing people apart.

"What the hell...?" He muttered. Admittedly he'd seen a lot of shit in his life, but he never expected that killer robots would be something he'd see in real life. He continued hiding till he heard a break in the fire, and bolted toward a door. He was about to grip the handle when he felt himself being lifted off the ground in strong robotic arms. He was turned to face a blond woman and a black haired man. "Who are you?!"

"Scarlett and Reeve." The woman said. "Respectively. We're here to take care of a little business for our boss, Rufus Shinra. You know, the man behind Hojo?"

"You... You support him?!" Zexion yelled. He thrashed, attempting to escape the metal cage. "How could you?!"

"He helped create us." Scarlett said. "He's the one thing we've ever known. The only home to mutants like us. We'd like to take your friends home. Unfortunately, some sacrifices must be made." She began pulling a pistol from the belt of a nearby dead security guard, and Zexion felt the grip begin to loosen. He looked to the man, Reeve, and saw his hand beginning to open. Zexion quickly slid out of the metal arms and ran.

* * *

"What the hell was that?!" Scarlett yelled. "Are you a fucking idiot?! We had him in our grasp!"

"I know that." Reeve muttered. "I just..."

"You what Reeve?" Scarlett seethed. "Hm? Did you pity him? We've had that beaten out of you! Or do you need to go through a reconditioning like Reno did before he died?"

"No! I lost focused!" Reeve finally snapped back. "I was just thinking!"

"Well I hope it was important cause no one is paying you to think about anything but your stupid fucking robots." Scarlett spat. "Now let's go before you fuck up again." She stormed out the building.

Reeve moved to follow her, but stopped. He looked down at his hand, curling his fingers. He then looked around at the destruction, waving his hand to dissipate the robots. They...they had really created all this destruction. This is what he'd been born to do. Why didn't it feel right anymore? He looked back down at his hand, and then followed his friend out.

* * *

Whoop! Hour and a half! Not bad. And I feel pretty okay about this chapter.


	7. Not Interested

a/n Aaaaah, back home. I'm going to listen to Within Temptation for this entire chapter and see what happens. Sorry I've been so spotty on my update schedule. I should be back to doing it every weekend once again. We're in hell time at school cause presentations and stock markets projects and just UGH. I also haven't been to my spanish class in like three weeks cause my teacher is being a transphobic bitch. Anyhow, enough of my whining. Story time.

* * *

"Vexen! Vexen come to the door!"

Vexen opened the door, his hair tied in a loose ponytail, as he had just woken up and usually kept it like that to keep it from tangling. Standing before him was a somewhat frazzled looking Zexion, or at least as frazzled as the man could possibly look. The slate haired man pushed past him and into the shelter, sitting on the couch and looking up expectantly. Vexen rolled his eyes and got them each a cup of coffee. Black for Zexion, two cream and two sugar for him. He sat next to his friend and handed the cup to him. Zexion grabbed it and drank eagerly before spitting it out and taking several deep breaths.

"...It's hot." Vexen said, setting his own cup down on a coaster on the table. Zexion nodded and set his cup down next to the blond's. He waited a few minutes for his mouth to start working again and then turned to Vexen. "So...how can I help you. How was the flight?"

"I almost got shot." Zexion responded.

"Yeah, I heard about that on the news." Vexen said, taking a sip of his now tolerable coffee. "Was it anti-power people?"

"No, something more than that." Zexion stared at his coffee, and Vexen raised an eyebrow. "There were two of them."

"Only two? But the carnage-"

"I know I know, I could barely believe it myself and I was there. There were two, a man and a woman. Scarlett and Reeve, they called themselves." Zexion explained. "They called themselves 'mutants'. They said that they were created by Hojo, who worked for someone named Rufus. The man, Reeve, he was controlling the robots that were tearing people apart. It was like what Xigbar said he saw. Just carnage and metal...everywhere."

"What did they want?" Vexen asked.

"They wanted to kill me." Both the men were silent for a minute. "They said they wanted to take you and the others 'home', which I imagine means back to Hojo, and that I would be the sacrifice that sobered you up."

"Bullshit." Vexen exclaimed, slamming his cup down, almost breaking it. "I killed Hojo! I blew up his head with icicles!"

"I know. They must have other scientists working for them or something. Listen, everything happened really fast and I don't know... I figured I should warn you." The men were quiet once again, each drinking there coffee. It was a full ten minutes before either of them spoke again.

"Yuffie is dead." Vexen spoke, cutting through the silence. "I don't think it was Rufus's people. I had seen some guy the night before, he said he was going to free all of us. Cloud said his name was Sephiroth."

"...There are too many lunatics in the world." Zexion muttered, running a hand through his hair. Vexen nodded, and took a final sip of his coffee. He stared at the window, not quite sure what to do with his body when it felt like there was nothing inside of it.

* * *

Axel cleaned the vomit off the mat in his dance studio. One of the children had been sick when they came in, but wanted so badly to attend class that they came in anyway. He rolled his eyes. He appreciated the enthusiasm children had for dance, but he'd told the parents an innumerable amount of times that if their child wasn't healthy, don't bring them to the damn class. The other parents didn't want their little shits getting sick, and he didn't want to get sick either.

He looked up when the bell chimed. Someone had walked in; a tall blond woman in a red dress. It was Scarlett.

"Hello." He said. "Can I help you?"

"Hello to you as well Axel." She purred. It reminded him of a cat that knew it had its prey cornered and was about to kill it, but wanted to toy with it a bit more. "I was wondering if I could get a quick private lesson?"

"I'm afraid I can't-"

"I have a one hundred and fifty dollar check written right now." Axel stared at her when she said that. That would cover the very last of his rent, and he would have some left over. He and Saïx would be able to go an actual date for the first time in forever because they had left over money. He bit his lip, not wanting to get sucked in by the woman, but the thought of getting pho with his blunette was too much to resist.

"Fine, take your shoes off before you get on the mat." Axel said. Scarlett complied, slipping off her stilettos and stepping onto the mat. How the hell anyone walked on those knifelike shoes, Axel had no idea. They got into a classic dancing pose, his hand on her waist, holding her other hand softly. She grinned flirtatiously and ran her hand up his chest on the way to his shoulder. He sent her a warning look and she laughed. "So we're going to do a basic waltz."

"Of course." She said, and allowed him to lead. "So I imagine you know why I'm here?"

"You're involved with something bad." Axel said. "I haven't figured out quite what it is, but there's something about you that's off putting. You're like a human magnet."

"So you're admitting you're attracted to me." She smirked.

"I'm just saying you pull the attention of everyone in the room." The redhead responded. "It is, of course, easier to catch attention by being a loud idiot than a logical sane person. How do you think politics works?" She laughed.

"Axel you are so charming." She said, moving in closer. Axel countered by spinning her, putting some distance between the two. "I'm here because I have a proposition."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. I have a sinking suspicion that you have some special abilities." Axel's heart stopped for a moment. "Some of the pyrotechnic kind?"

"And if I did?" He asked.

"I happen to find these powers appealing, and I have a friend who thinks they're very interesting." She said. She leaned in close and put her lips right next to his ear. "I was thinking maybe we could get coffee and go meet my friend?" Axel sighed and spun, giving no indication as to his answer. The private lesson continued without too much more incident, and Scarlett smiled at him as she slipped on her shoes once again. "So, what's your answer?"

"I'm afraid I'll have to decline." Axel said. Scarlett pouted, but started heading out the door. "Oh, one thing."

"Hm?"

"I'm gay."

* * *

Yeah sorry there wasn't much going on in this chapter. To be honest I'm really freickin tired and my head has felt like it was going to explode for several hours. Anyhow, chapter 7. Please R&R.


	8. To Be A Star

a/n Heh heh...sorry it's been forever. My dad went on a business trip and took all the computers so my access to fanfiction was very limited. I've been listening to the Kubo of the Two Strings trailer over and over cause I can't get enough of their cover of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". It's so beautiful!

* * *

 _Running._

 _Running. Legs burning as though they were on fire._

 _Hadn't they been on fire once? A long time ago?_

 _Vexen continued to run down the never-ending path before him. He muscles were on fire as he ran. He stopped for a moment to breath. What was he even running from? He couldn't remember. It was simply running for the sake of running. He looked down at his feet. Burns all the way up his legs but...why were they so small. He looked up to see himself, why was he there? He was ten years old again. He heard a rough laugh behind him and turned._

 _It Helletic Hojo. There was no real face through which to sense the being's emotions, but Vexen could somehow see its smirk through wide eyes. He continued running, ignoring the burning shooting up his leg. It seemed as though he was going nowhere. There was a roar as he was grabbed and roughly turned around._

 _But suddenly it wasn't helletic hojo. It was a tall man with blond hair in a white suit, and behind him Sephiroth. He tried to take a step back, but was stopped by the grip the other man had on him. He could see his reflection in a pair of blue eyes. He was an adult again, eyes wide with fear. He ripped himself out of the grip so hard that he had to stumble back, coming to...an edge? He caught himself before he fell and turned to look down into a pit of fire. He screamed and tried to step away, but suddenly his free will had been turned off. There was a harsh kick and he fell._

Vexen hadn't realized he had woken up screaming. Not until he was sitting in the living room in his pajamas with a blanket wrapped around him, Marluxia snapping his fingers in front of his eyes. He blinked and shook his head, moving away from the fingers.

"You're back?" Marluxia asked hesitantly. He smiled with relief when Vexen nodded his head. "Good. I was scared we had lost you there for a second? What happened? Why were you screaming?"

"I just had a nightmare." Vexen said. "It was nothing.

"It's not nothing. You've been in the midst of a panic attack for the past twenty things." Marluxia said sternly. He put a cup of water in the blond's hands and refused to take it back until had passed into his body. "There, better?"

"A litte bit." Vexen hesitantly admitted. "But really, it was just a nightmare."

"Like hell it was a nightmare." Marluxia snapped. "You woke up screaming! That was not just a nightmare! Do you remember what happened at all?"

"No." Vexen lied.

"You're a terrible liar Vexen." Marluxia gave him a stern look, and Vexen felt like he was standing in front of a parent instead of a partner. Flower petals began to swarm around the room, reflecting Marluxia's aggravation. "Tell me what was in the nightmare."

"I don't want to talk about it." Vexen snapped, standing. Marluxia opened his mouth again and began to speak but Vexen cut him off before a full word got out of his mouth. "I said I don't want to talk about it! For gods sake I'm not a child Marluxia! Hell I'm two years older than you! If anything you're the child because you won't leave me alone! You're so annoying right now! I need space!"

"Fine! Then go get space!" Marluxia yelled. "Maybe then I can get some sleep without you fucking everything up!" Every petal in the room was suddenly covered in ice, killed where the floated, all hitting the ground at the same time. "Really Vexen? That's just immature." He closed his mouth when he saw the mixture of fury and hurt in the other man's eyes, almost immediately regretting what he said.

"I'm going for a walk." Vexen said after a minute of silence between the two. He turned to grab his coat and put on his shoes as he heard small footsteps walk up to him. He turned to see Aerith. "What is it?"

"Can I come with you?" She asked. "I can't sleep."

"...Fine." Vexen said. "But you have to go to sleep right after." He helped her get her shoes on and then gave her her coat. They both walked outside, Marluxia watching them leave, debating whether or not it was worth it to apologize.

* * *

"Why are the stars so shiny?" Aerith asked from her place in Vexen's arms.

"The gravity keeping them together is very intense, and that friction causes the core to heat up." Vexen explained. "This allows nuclear fusion to take place, which is when atoms of hydrogen are converted into atoms of helium. This releases an enormous amount of energy to be released in the form of gamma rays. These are trapped inside the star, so they push out against the gravitational contraction of the star. That's why they're a certain size, and don't keep contracting. Gamma rays continue to jump around, trying to escape, and are absorbed by atoms and are emitted again as photons. When photons reach our eyes, that is what we call light."

"So...?" Aerith blinked at him in confusion and he said.

"Stars are so shiny cause there's lots of bouncy stuff inside them." Vexen finally said, coming up with an explanation the child might understand. Aerith beamed.

"Like butterflies when I get excited!" Aerith beamed, proud that she had "understood" the scientist. Vexen couldn't help but chuckle a little. "So why are the stars so excited then if they have so much bouncy butterflies?" Now _that_ was an abstract question.

"They're free." Vexen finally responded, taking a moment to think. "They're free because they don't have anything to bound them to the earth. No bodies, no responsibilities, nothing."

"I want to be a star one day." Aerith mused.

"I think I would like for both of us." Vexen said. The next thing he heard was a shout as he felt extreme pain go up his back, and suddenly everything was black.

* * *

Okay hiatus done. I have succeeded in uploading a chapter.


	9. Him

a/n Meeeeeh sorry it's been so long since I've updated ^^'... I'm at the very end of my high school career right now and everything has just been sort of hectic blah blah blah portfolio bla graduation bla not contributing to society in any valuable way bla you know the drill. Anyhow, lets get this rolling and see if I still remember what the fuck I'm doing.

* * *

Vexen looked up, blinking his eyes blearily. He shifted just slightly and felt the cold concrete beneath, like harsh ice touching his skin. It was almost ironic how that cold caused a burning sensation on his skin when he moved. He sat up, noticing that he was no longer wearing his normal clothes but something akin to a hospital shirt and pants, and then forced himself to stand. He wavered a little bit, leaning against the nearby wall, and took a moment to fully analyze his surroundings.

He was standing in a small room with walls made completely of concrete, as well as the floor and ceiling. There was a stripped cot in the far corner with a stripped mattress, but aside from that the room was empty of any substance. The door was tall and appeared to be made of metal, and Vexen smirked. Clearly these bastards hadn't learned from the last time they tried to imprison him. He walked up to the door, his strength having returned, and pressed his hand against it. He released his energy only to fly back and hit the wall.

He stared at it in shock and stood shakily. Okay, apparently they had learned. He frowned, realizing he was going to need to figure out another way to escape, meaning he and Aerith were going to be stuck in here for a bit longer than what would be considered ideal in this situation. He sat crosslegged on the bed and put his hands in his chin, wracking his brain for ideas.

A few hours later his door opened, and there was a man standing on the other side. He was tall, with neatly styled blond hair, and wore a white suit. Vexen stood quickly, facing the man, their eyes meeting like a pair of wild cats deciding on territory. The man smiled coldly, and opened his mouth.

"Hello Vexen," he said. "My name is Rufus Shinra, and I'm the director of this project here. It was started by my grandfather and carried on by my father, who ran the program during your original stay under a Professor Hojo, who was in fact one of the programs first patients. It's good to see you've returned home."

"This is no home," Vexen spat. "I'm not staying here."

"Oh but you see you don't have a choice," Rufus stated, walking into the room. "The real world isn't safe for you, and can you imagine how much you could help the world by fighting for the real heroes?"

"What real heroes," Vexen scoffed. "The only thing I see here is a little boy walking around in his daddy's big boy pants pretending to be an adult. Stand down and let me and Aerith leave before I'm forced to attack you. The program is dead."

"Oh I'm afraid that's not so," the other blond laughed. "Did you honestly believe your lab was our set of patients? You are only one of many that have been developed by our corporation to give as gifts to the world."

"Give as gifts...you were selling them?!"

"Not all of them," Rufus insisted. "You remember the guards you grew up with? Tseng, Rude, and Reno?" Vexen nodded, and the other man smirked a little. "You know what, I'll give a gift. Come with me." Rufus walked away, and Vexen followed, looking around as they walked down the maze of hallways for any possible escape routes. They walked into an office, and both sat on either side of a projector. Rufus turned on the projector and began to speak.

"This was a project developed by my grandfather in an attempt to produce soldiers to help better defend our country," Rufus explained. "He started out with a small handful of patients, six to be exact. Hojo, Xehanort, Eraqus, Kain, Cecil, and Golbez. These children were selected based on certain qualities. They were did not have many friends or family members, they were very young when they joined the program, and they had unique abilities. Hojo was able to manipulate the shape of his own body, Xehanort could create vessels of darkness, Eraqus was able to deconstruct and reconstruct his body, Golbez was able to summon small dragons, Cecil could heal, and Kain could almost defy gravity." He flashed a picture of each child as he explained their ability, as well a small clip of them in action. "This first group of patients was known as Project Fantasy."

"Why are you explaining this to me," Vexen asked.

"All in due time my friend," Rufus said, laughing at the harsh look Vexen shot him. "Project Fantasy was incredibly successful and we sold off all the patients except Hojo, whom we discovered to be the most intelligent. His curiosity was insatiable, and we discovered that he would be quite an asset to the program. It was him who developed the idea to take the best of each crop for ourselves."

"So you keep the most adept for yourselves and sell the rest into slavery," Vexen asked.

"Not slavery. They're weapons you see. Only those who prove their value to us earn the rights of people, and even still only the researchers receive the opportunity of a recovery from their programming," Rufus explained. Vexen raised an eyebrow. "Well, our soldiers near to stay obedient, and the programming is very effective. Things didn't go wrong with the youth until your generation of projects, but your project was also the largest. Before you was Project Turk, my father's project. It contained five subjects: Tseng, Rude, Reno, Cissnei, and Elena. We sold off Cissnei and Elena and kept Tseng, Rude, and Reno for ourselves. Tseng was one of our most successful soldiers before he died. He was programmed very well. Reno, not so much. He was impulsive and out of control. We should have just sold him off, but he was incredibly powerful, and my father got greedy."

"So you only do one project at a time," Vexen asked. He hated to admit it, but he was actually quite interested. He'd always wondered what the purpose of the program had been, and this was a stellar opportunity.

"That's what we originally did," Rufus confirmed. "When the next generation of projects came around, there was a disagreement between some of the researchers and we agreed to split to two projects. There was your group, Project XIII, run by Hojo. At the same time there was another project, Project Crisis. It had five subjects: Sephiroth, Genesis, Angeal, Scarlett, and Reeve."

"What happened with Project Crisis," Vexen asked.

"A lot of things went wrong," Rufus admitted. "At first it looked to be our most promising project yet. Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal were all incredibly powerful. Reeve and Scarlett were weaker than the others, but remarkably intelligent. However, we realized the programming didn't seem to stick to Sephiroth and Genesis, and both of them were turning rogue. In turn there was an attempt to further push it into their brains, which backfired."

"Backfired?"

"Sephiroth was fine, but Genesis continued to fight, so he was given serums in an attempt to mentally sedate him enough for the programming to take hold. However, it did help him. He remained as mentally powerful as ever, but began to get weak, and then began to get sick. He eventually died from the medication, and when Sephiroth and Angeal realized what killed their best friend, they went ballistic and attacked the researchers. Scarlett and Reeve were brought out and offered freedom in exchange for killing the other two, and they actually managed to kill Angeal, but Sephiroth escaped. We quickly reprogrammed the other two and then everything that wrong with Project XIII happened."

"Did you ever set Scarlett and Reeve free," Vexen asked.

"Well of course not," Rufus said. "The only ones who have ever gone free are your group and Sephiroth, and you see what that has caused us? Sephiroth is on a homicidal rampage and you are all off trying to fend for yourselves, and that's not going so well. People are attacking you."

"You're attacking us," The other man reminded him.

"Yes yes but that's because we want what's best for you," The blond explained. "We want to help you use your powers and skills to the best of your abilities, and that can be done aiding in war efforts around the world for most of you, but as for you Vexen... I see _potential_ in you. You're smart, you're curious, you're just like a certain someone."

"Don't you dare."

"Calm down now Vexen," Rufus said. "I believe you should consider my offer." He cleared his throat. "Vexen, I am offering you recovery and everything an investigative man like you could dream of. Vexen, if you help us get the kids, I will appoint you the head researcher of Project Cetra. You will become the next Hojo."

Vexen's pupils shrunk, and his blood ran cold as ice and hot as fire at the same time. Him, the next _Hojo_. His mind was filled with the sounds of screaming, images of fire, and a sudden sensation of burning. He growled and stood, knocking over the projector as he did.

"Don't you ever call me that," He screamed, freezing the ground beneath him. "I will _never_ be like him! I would kill myself before stooping to that level!"

"Alright, if that's what you have your heart set on," Rufus said with a sigh. "At least I offered. Guards! Take him away!" A pair of guards walked into the room and grabbed the furious Vexen, who thrashed and screamed in rage as he was dragged down the hall and tossed into his room. He launched himself at the door as is was closed and beat on it, desperately trying to break out so he could release this rage. As he finally tired out, he sank to the floor, pulling his knees to his chest.

"I'm not him," He muttered to himself. "I'm not him I will _never_ be him..." He would never become like Hojo. Sure he studied the children but that was for their benefit and he never experimented on them. He was nothing like Hojo.

Right?

* * *

a/n BOOM DONE WHOOP Sweet I'm so glad I got that done. This wasn't necessarily a filler chapter as more establishing the history and guidelines of the world so...yeah... Hope you all enjoyed and please leave a review.

Seriously.

Please review.

I feed off reviews and I'm fucking starving over here.

Alright Maruba out. Peace.


	10. Escape

a/n You know I'm going to be fucking productive while I can. I hope I can get this done well.

* * *

"So...are going to get out of here yet Vexen," Aerith asked, playing with her food a little. The pair were sitting across from each other in a dining hall, a few guards stationed around the walls.

"We don't talk about that," Vexen warned her. He whispered a little. "They might here us."

"Oh, right," Aerith responded with a nod. "...Do you think Marluxia has noticed we're missing?"

"Of course he has," Vexen replied. "We've been gone for a few days now. Whether or not he cares is something I don't know."

"He cares," the girl said. "He loves you a lot. I bet he'll come save us."

"He won't. He can't," Vexen told her. "You can't always rely on other people to save you, Aerith. This isn't a Disney princess movie. No prince is going to come riding in on some white stallion to defeat some insane dragon to save us. Bad things happen, just like this bad thing happened, and most of the time you just have to get yourself out of it."

"But friends are supposed to help you when you're in bad situations just like this," Aerith told him. "Just like when Cloud and Tifa helped me get my stuffed cat out of the tree when Yuffie accidentally threw it up there."

"This really isn't the same scenario." He fiddled with his plastic fork and looked down at it, staring at it, twirling once more before it clicked in his head. "We'll be able to get out of here, though. Don't worry. I'll show you how to be your own hero."

"Right," she cheered excitedly. Vexen smiled a bit and nodded, quickly sliding the fork into the hem of his pants where it wouldn't be seen. They were escorted to their rooms shortly after and he sat on his bed, watching the guard walk out. As soon a he was alone, he pulled out the fork and snapped it in half, working the sides of the bottom half with his nails and teeth.

He didn't finish until late that night, but when he was done his handiwork was one to be admired. He'd memorized the ridges of the key the guards used to open the doors, having seen the key many times in the past few days. He'd turned the bottom half of his plastic fork into an almost perfect replica of the key. He slide the fork into the lock and grinned when it successfully turned, stepping out and moving down the hall with the agile quickness of some who's done this before.

It took him a while but he found Aerith's room and slid in the key, having a little bit of trouble managing to unlock it with a little bit of fiddling. He opened the door and put his finger up to his lips when the girl opened her mouth to greet him. He took her by the hand and began guiding her down the halls.

They ran down the hall until Vexen spotted a ceiling vent he was able to reach and froze the bolts, making it easier for him to pull it off. The guards would have noticed something on their security cameras at this point, so he didn't have much time to work. He pushed Aerith up into the vent and climbed in after her, pulling the vent back into place and freezing it there. He moved past her and led the way, having memorized the layout of the hallways and hoping that aided him in their escape through the vent.

He was in luck, finding one that went up to the roof, he pushed it out and moved the girl out, following her and looking up to the sky. He let out a breath that he hadn't realized he was holding, knowing deep down that there had been a possibility that he would have never seen the sky again. He smiled and saw that Aerith was doing the same, and she hugged his waist.

"You did it," she cheered. "You got us out!"

"Yes yes I know," Vexen said, pushing her away just slightly. "Now hush, we're not in the clear yet. Get on." He bent down and let her climb on his back, and then began climbing down the side of the building. He would usually use ice to just slide down, but he didn't want to leave too much evidence as to where to he went. He set her down as he stepped onto the ground and took her hand, leading her away. "I'm sure Tifa will be excited to have a roommate again."

"I'm so excited to see them again," Aerith said excitedly. "We're going to go to the park so I can see the flowers again."

"I'm sure the flowers will be very excited to see you," Vexen told her. As they walked she continued to chatter excitedly as they walked, and he would give the occasional amused response, actually enjoying the personal time with the young girl. However he was more focused on keeping them away from populated areas, as he wasn't able to find a change of clothes for them and they were still in their uniforms. As they walked, he began sensing something moving behind them. He turned around and saw a shadow move, frowning. "Stay close to me." He saw a flash of light and summoned his shield, moving it front of him just in time to block a long sword. From behind his shield he saw the glinting eyes of Sephiroth.

"You're a very clever man," Sephiroth told him, pressing against the shield. "Too bad you're making such a foolish decision by keeping these children alive."

"That level of insanity doesn't even warrant a proper response," Vexen replied, pushing back. Sephiroth flipped away and got into a fighting position, running at him and slashing. Vexen quickly blocked it. "I am more than capable of keeping these children out of the hands of these monsters."

"How do I know I should keep them out of your hands as well," Sephiroth asked, continuing to slash. Aerith had run away, and was watching the men fight from behind a tree. Vexen continued blocking the slashes, occasionally attempting to bash the man with his shield and shoot ice at him, more interested in tiring him out than injuring him. "You have his same eyes, that same look. You're just like Hojo aren't you."

"I am not!" Vexen yelled, pushing his shield out to attack, Sephiroth slid under it and moved to strike him, Vexen coming to his senses in time to just barely dodge it.

"The anger you feel when told that means you are," the silver haired man told him. "You want to experiment on these kids, don't you? You want to look further into seeing what makes these powers physical. Cut them up and find the source of their life force."

"SHUT UP," Vexen yelled, raising his shield above his head to attack. Sephiroth moved to slash up through him, but the air went cold when they both heard a gasp. They looked down to see Aerith between them, sword sticking straight through her, having torn up her stomach just slightly. She coughed up some blood and fell over dead. Vexen stared down at her, breath growing shallow as his pupils slowly decreased in size.

He hadn't even been all that close with Aerith, but seeing her lying there dead after telling her all these things about showing her how to be her own hero, well, something inside him he didn't even know existed snapped in half. His eyes began to glow bright white and he let out a demonic screech, letting out ice spikes through the ground, piercing Sephiroth's right arm. He continued to bash at the man with his shield, shooting ice at him with relentless, merciless fury.

He continued to attack even at the man retreated, freezing everything around him and causing it to explode, even Aerith's body, screaming as he did. When it finally over he collapsed to his knees, panting in a mixture of emotional and physical exhaustion. After a few minutes he shakily stood up and started walking, heading towards where he knew his home was. He knocked on the door and stared at it as it open.

"Who is i- Vexen," Marluxia exclaimed, startled. He stared at the blond, who was covered with dirt and a few scrapes and stared at him with a haunted, dead look. "Vexen, are you okay...?" The blond walked up to him and pressed his head into Marluxia's shoulder, and felt a pair of arms wrap around him. It was only then that he finally let out his pent up emotions, letting himself cry into the other's shoulder.

* * *

a/n Sweet two chapters in one day. I'm being productive! WHOOP!


	11. Plans

a/n This is a good day.

* * *

"They...they were selling them," Xigbar asked, his eyes wide. He, Axel, and Zexion were currently at the shelter with Marluxia and Vexen, listening to what he had learned from Rufus.

"Yes, they were. They had brainwashed them to be weapons, or 'programmed' as he called it," Vexen said, shuddering a little bit. "They're had three generations now. Project Fantasy, Project Turk, and then the two that happened at the same time. That was Project XIII, which was us, and Project Crisis."

"And that nut job, Sephiroth, came from Project Crisis," Axel asked, wanting to make sure he was correct. The blond nodded. "So then why is he trying to kill the children?"

"He wants to 'save them'," Vexen said. "I think it has something to do with his friend Genesis."

"Genesis?"

"Genesis...I remember hearing that name," Zexion exclaimed. "I remember some of the researchers talking about him. It was all numbers and medical reports though."

"That's because he got really sick," Vexen explained. "He was fighting against them, or 'going rogue' as Rufus said, and they tried to give him something to brainwash him. It ended making him very sick, and he died from that. I think he Sephiroth were really close, and that must have made him snap."

"Well, I mean, I get that," Xigbar said. "I flipped out when Luxord died."

"Yeah, and Reno lost the will to live when he lost Rude," Axel added.

"He must have already been unstable," Zexion concluded. "Or at least more unstable than any of us. That doesn't matter right now though. What matters is that we figure out what to do about the whole Shinra situation. They were able to get to Vexen, and they must have been behind the attack on my book signing."

"I remember running into a man in the park," Xigbar said. "He controlled robots, said his name was Reeve Tuesti and he was an agent of the exact guy you're talking about. He wanted to take Cloud and I into custody and I was just like 'as if'!"

"What did he look like," Axel asked.

"Small guy, black hair with a mustache and beard."

"Does he wear a blue suit with a red tie?"

"Exactly."

"He came to my dance studio," Axel said. "There was a woman with him, blond in a red dress. She looked a little bit Larxene if Larxene had class."

"Axel," Marluxia warned him.

"Oh hush," the redhead shot back. "Anyway the woman introduced herself as Scarlett and called the man Reeve, but they said they were journalists. They asked for information on Zexion's book tour in Japan. I didn't tell them anything but they must have gotten the information somehow."

"They're sneaky," Xigbar said. "I've only run into Reeve but he's pretty smart, and he can control robots. If he has an associate that must mean she's sharp as well. They must have sneaked the info out without you knowing."

"Well, at least we have a small idea of what we're dealing with," Zexion concluded. "We need to keep in contact. The kids are the be constantly monitored, and through that we might be able to find out more information about Sephiroth, maybe even trap him."

"Trap him," Marluxia asked. "You're insane. He's a bloodthirsty madman."

"I don't think so," Vexen stated. "He's definitely crazy, but he's not bloodthirsty. He has an actual purpose. If we trap him, we might be able to find out more of the information we need to formulate a plan to deal with Rufus. After all, he was a patient in Project Crisis, which was more closely tied to Rufus. He knows more about that than we do."

"Alright, if that's what you think we should do," Marluxia relented. "Remember when I used to be the ones making the plans?"

"Yes yes Flowey now let the smart people handle this," Zexion teased, smirking when the pinkette pouted. "Now, Xigbar, Axel, keep an eye out for Scarlett and Reeve. Clearly those two are pretty deeply involved. If we can get more information from them, we're one step closer. I'll do some research and see if I can find information on the Shinra family name."

"Alright, good," Axel said. "We have a plan."

* * *

"Having fun with your Cait Shit there?"

Reeve rolled his eyes and looked back at Scarlett from where he was bending on the ground. In front of him was a small black and white tuxedo cat that he fondly scratching behind the ears. He'd found the thing as a kitten, abandoned in a box on the side of the street, and took it in, having always been fond of animals. He'd named it Cait Sith and raised it like his own child, and his partner loved to to tease him about it.

"I don't know Scarlett are you having fun in the daddy issues corner," he asked. That affectively shut the blond woman up, and he smiled, taking his pet in his arms as he stood. He continued to stroke Cait affectionately and walked over to the woman. "So what are you doing here? You usually don't like to bother me around this time."

"I'd heard from the boss that you were acting rather strange," she replied. "He asked me to check up on you. I don't know when I became your babysitter but apparently that's my job so okay."

"Well, I've just been...thinking..." he admitted.

"Not this again," Scarlett groaned. She took a seat in his office chair and crossed her legs, looking at him with annoyance. "What has you so bothered? You've been like this since that book thing we went to."

"I've just been wondering if we're doing the right thing." Reeve didn't look up at her, fiddling with Cait's ear. He could tell by the silence that she was frowning though. "We caused so much destruction. A lot of innocent people died."

"Of course they died," Scarlett said. "It's like we've always been told: Everyone dies eventually. We're at war with traitors. There are going to be a few civilian casualties."

"Do you remember the other three," Reeve asked, looking up at her. She blinked, surprised at such a quick change in topic. "Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis."

"Of course I do," Scarlett said. "They were the first people we ever killed."

"Do you remember what they used to say though," he asked. "Angeal would always talk about how there was no honor in senseless violence. Sephiroth and Genesis always said that what the scientists were doing to us was wrong. That what they wanted us to do was wrong."

"Reeve, Angeal is dead," she reminded him. "We killed him. Genesis is dead too. As for Sephiroth? Sephiroth is and always has been a raving lunatic."

"But what if they're right?" The pair were quiet for a moment, pondering the severity of those words. "What...what if we're doing the wrong thing?"

"So what," Scarlett asked. "We're doing what we're told. That makes it the right thing."

"I don't want to be a bad person," Reeve admitted. He looked down at Cait, who looked up him and let out a small meow. "I don't want to be someone other people are afraid. I know I can use my powers to help people."

"You are," Scarlett insisted. "You're using your powers to help Rufus, the person who matters. The person who promised us everything."

"How do we know he's going to give us everything," the man asked.

"We have faith," the woman snapped. "Without faith we are weak, but you've always been weak Reeve. Without those robots you keep around you can't even fight. I'm going to go get food. I'll bring you Mongolian beef. Don't talk to me until you're ready to act like a normal human being." She stood up and walked out, and Reeve looked down at his cat, which had fallen asleep.

"Normal human being..." he muttered to himself. "Why can't I just be a cat? It all seems so much simpler."

* * *

a/n Alright last bit of writing for today but hell I WAS PRODUCTIVE! I took a small break with this chapter and my dad and I went and saw X-men Age of Apocalypse which was freickin amazing. Anyhow, please review and good bye. Maruba out.


	12. Fragility of the Mind

a/n Okay so I get to get a bit more writing done so I'm just going to keep working on this and see how much happens. *plugs nose, dives in*

* * *

Cloud sat on a bench next to Xigbar, quietly eating his ice cream. The older man looked up at the sky, stretching. Marluxia had asked him to try to get more information out of the boy, as he was the only child they knew who had personally run into Sephiroth and survived, or at least he seemed to have. The blond was a quiet child, who rarely spoke to the adults, but Xigbar had always had a way with children.

"So, kiddo, you wanna play the question game," he asked, looking down at the boy. "I won't put any restrictions. You can ask me anything that isn't sexual."

"That's a restriction," Cloud commented. "You're a liar."

"As if! I'm just saying, you're a kid. I don't want to have to discuss that with you," Xigbar told him. "In exchange you have to answer all my questions. No restrictions."

"Except for anything sexual."

"Kid, you don't even know what that means."

"Fine," Cloud said. "But I get to ask the first question." He waited for the adult to nod, and then opened his mouth. "What's your favorite color?"

"Easy, blue," Xigbar said. "What's yours?"

"I like green. You like blue because his eyes were that color. They always reminded you of the ocean." Xigbar frowned at the boy, not liking that Cloud had gone into his head without permission. "I like green because I grew up around a lot of forests. The color green always makes me think of home."

"Yeah? Alright, what's your next question," Xigbar asked him.

"What's the boy's name?" The man cocked his head, not knowing who the boy was referring to. "The blond boy. The fuzzy one inside your brain."

"It's not polite to go into people's heads without asking kiddo," Xigbar chided him. "His name is Luxord. We were friends."

"No you weren't. You liked him a lot more than a friend."

"You are really creepy. Anyway, my turn," Xigbar said. "How do you know Sephiroth?"

"I fought him," Cloud said, and Xigbar's eyes widened. "What?"

"You...you fought Sephiroth," he asked. "As if! You're a child! How the hell did you fight Sephiroth?"

"With a sword," Cloud replied. "Anyway, I'm done with this question. How did you and Luxord meet?"

"We were kids," Xigbar said, remembering back to when he ran into a scared little blond with a British accent and a love for cards. "We were brought to the same facility, and I was the first one to go up and talk to him. He was really shy at first, but once he and I developed a friendship he began to open up to different people. I don't think there was anyone who actively disliked him, though he was a little weird at times. My turn. What happened when you fought Sephiroth?"

"I was running...and there was someone with me. My big brother, Zack. Sephiroth broke into our home while our mom was out. Our dad had left a year after I was born. Sephiroth looked at us and charged, but Zack grabbed my hand and started running, jumping out the window. He had a weird ability, he was able to turn into a dog, a really big black one, kind of like a wolf but...not. He transformed and had me get on his back and he ran. It was dark and raining and I remember passing street lights and hearing Sephiroth behind us and he caught up and knocked Zack to the side, grabbing him after he'd switched back and throwing him into some garbage. I yelled at him to run and put my hand out and suddenly there was a sword in my hand and we just started fighting. After that all I can remember is running and ending up on Vexen's doorstep."

"...Tough story kiddo," Xigbar told him. "You want me to take you home now?"

"I want to go back to the shelter," Cloud said. "I'm done with my ice cream anyway." The boy stood up and started walking, the adult following closely behind him. "Is Sephiroth right?"

"What?"

"He said he's trying to protect us from turning into monsters," the blond explained. "That he's trying to save us, the keep us away from the bad people, like Rufus. If that's what he's trying to do then...why are you trying to stop him?"

"Because he's trying to kill you Cloud," Xigbar explained. "People don't kill others to protect them."

"But you let Luxord die." Xigbar's eyes widened and his heart stopped for a moment.

"What did you say," he asked, turning to the boy, who stared up at him with the same glowing, owlish eyes he always had.

"You let him die because he asked you to," Cloud stated. "You could have just as easily gone against his wishes and taken him to a hospital and he might still be here today but he didn't want that. What if I wanted Sephiroth to kill me? Would you let him do it the-"

" _Shut. Up,_ " Xigbar growled, glaring at him. "You don't know what he and I went through, what we suffered, and with any luck you'll never have to! I did what I thought was best at the time because yes, he asked me to, but you know what? If he was alive today he'd still be dealing with years and years of trauma and emotional scarring! So maybe I did the right thing or maybe I did the wrong thing but I did something to protect him yes you're right but I also did _not_ kill him! To compare me to Sephiroth is one of the worst things you've _ever_ said to me Cloud and you've been a brat! You know what, if you want Sephiroth to kill you, fine! I hereby give you permission to die!"

"I didn't need permission to kill him." Anger flooded out of Xigbar as he quickly moved the child, just barely dodging a life ending slash. He looked up to see Sephiroth, black wing glinting in the sun in all its glory. He looked like an angel of death. "What, I thought you gave him permission to die?"

"He's a child," Xigbar said, looking down at the little boy in his arms. Cloud's eyes were wide and his was clinging to the man. "He... I didn't mean it. I was angry." The adults stared at each other in silence, and then Xigbar spoke again. "He said he fought you. You were beaten by a child. You don't seem so tough to me after all."

"Nonsense," Sephiroth said. "I ran into him and his brother, but I never fought this boy."

"Y-Yes you did..." Cloud muttered, shaking.

"You've fooled yourself child," the silver haired man told him. "I never fought you. I fought your brother."

"No, you threw Zack," Cloud yelled, wriggling out of Xigbar's grasp to stand on his own two feet facing the man. "You threw him away and I never saw him again!"

"That's wrong," Sephiroth said, staring down the child. Cloud glared straight back at him, planting his feet and refusing to look away. Xigbar had to admit, he was impressed. Even he was intimidated by the man, but here was a child, looking death right in the face with unwavering determination. "I knocked over your brother, who turned back into a person. I grabbed you, but he punched my side. This caused me to throw you, and he summoned a sword and fought him. I killed him, and I would have retrieved you and killed you then but your brother managed to damage me to a point where I needed to retreat and heal myself. You should count yourself lucky that he was so brave."

"But...I...you're wrong," Cloud shouted. Xigbar opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted when the child spoke again. "You didn't kill him you couldn't have!"

"Then how do you explain his absence in your memories after that," Sephiroth asked, looking down at him.

"I-I...but...he..." Cloud whimpered, breathing heavily. "I...I can't...!" He grabbed his hair as tears began streaming down the sides of his face. "But...I remember...he..." He let out a high pitched whine, and Xigbar flinched.

"There, now accept your fate," Sephiroth said, walking up and raising his sword. "Die knowing the tru-" Cloud stood from the ground, putting out his hand and screeching like an unholy demon, eyes gleaming. Sephiroth's eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed to the ground, Cloud reacting in the same way only seconds later. Xigbar caught the child and whipped out his phone, calling Zexion, who appeared twenty minutes later.

"What happened," he asked, and Xigbar frantically explained the whole situation. "Hm...I think Cloud did this."

"Cloud? But...he's just a child..." Xigbar said.

"Vexen was younger than him when he blew up his father's head," Zexion commented, bending down and taking Cloud from him. He laid the child flat on the ground and moved Sephiroth so the man was laying parallel to him nearby. "Lay down between them."

"What?"

"I need to act as a conduit," Zexion explained. "Cloud's powers revolve around the mind, my specialty. He must have gone through so much stress that he forced Sephiroth and himself into hiding in the deep reaches of his subconscious. You need to help him find his way back to us."

"And I'll be doing this how..." Xigbar asked.

"In my spare time I've been experimenting with my powers, Zexion continued. "I've discovered various things I can do with my powers of manipulating the mind."

"I thought was only about making people see things."

"That's what I believed to. Then I realized it's not their eyesight I'm manipulating. It's their consciousness. With practice I've gained the ability to transport myself and other people through various minds using physical connection. Now lie down between Sephiroth and Cloud so I can get you into their heads. Their psyches are already connected. Cloud took care of that part for me."

"Is this going to hurt," Xigbar asked, laying between the two subjects and grabbing their hands.

"A little," Zexion said, placing his hands on both of Xigbar's, closing his own eyes. Xigbar felt the sensation of a electrified power drill digging into his skull and screamed, and then suddenly there was only darkness.

* * *

a/n Yeah sorry this go weird really quick but I mean it's important I promise. I promise.


	13. Golden Pillars

a/n Yeah sorry if that last chapter got really weird really quick. I promise you though, this is important to character development. Or, well, I think it is. Everyone else can suck it. I'm kidding. Please don't hate me.

* * *

Xigbar groaned as he awoke, laying flat on his back. He looked around, searching for Zexion so he could beat the shit out of him for that jolt of pain. Instead, he was in an unfamiliar environment, but not an unpleasant one. He was laying on a bed of golden flowers and soft grass, light streaming from an unknown source above him. He appeared to be in the middle of an old house, but when he stood up and walked outside, he was not greeted by more houses. He was instead greeted by a golden pathway aligned with golden pillars on each side. Behind the golden pillars was nothing but forest, tall trees overtaken by flowers of various color that sparkled in the light. It was absolutely beautiful.

"What are you doing here?" Xigbar was shaken out of his awe by the sound of a voice in front of him. He looked down to see Cloud staring up at him. "This is my place. Why are you here?"

"Zexion sent me here to get you back," Xigbar explained. "We need to get you back to the real world where the rest of us are." Cloud frowned at him and shook his end. "What's wrong? Why don't you want to come back with me? It wouldn't be so fun to sleep forever."

"I like it here," Cloud said. "Here is where things make sense. I can do whatever I want here. I can just stay in this house. I don't need to go anywhere else."

"So...you've never gone down that path," Xigbar asked. The boy shook his head. "Hm...well, that might be the way out."

"I told you I'm not going," Cloud growled, crossing him arms. Xigbar held back a laugh at the growl. It was like being threatened by a puppy for taking away a toy. "I don't want to leave this place I like it here."

"Fine," Xigbar relented. "But I don't. I want to go home. How about we make a deal?"

"What kind of deal...?"

"Well, you go down the path with me. This is your head so you'll understand it a lot better. When we find the way out, I'll go and you can stay here. Deal?" Cloud looked at him for a minute, mulling over the suggestion, before sticking his pinky. Xigbar smiled and wrapped his pinky around the boy's. "Good. Let's go. Take my hand so we don't get separated."

"It's my head, I don't need to take your hand," Cloud said, walking away. Xigbar sighed and followed the child down the path. Some things would never change. Rain would always fall, rivers would always flow, and small blond children would forever be stubborn. There was no changing that. As they walked down the path, Cloud began to speak again. "He's in here too."

"Sephiroth? I know," Xigbar said. "I won't let him hurt you."

"He doesn't want to hurt me," Cloud said. Xigbar furrowed his brow in confusion. "He's been following us for a while. If he wanted to hurt me, then he would have already." Cloud turned to the forest and cupped his hands around his mouth. "It's okay! You can come out now!" Moments later a tall, silver haired man stepped out from the shadows. Sephiroth stared at them both, almost as though he were analyzing their souls.

"I'm impressed child," Sephiroth commented. "Most children are unable to sense my presence."

"I don't understand why," Cloud replied. "You're not all that quiet. Why don't you want to hurt me this time?"

"There's no purpose in killing a figment," the silvette told him. "All I would be doing is severing you from your consciousness. That would destroy your mind, but it wouldn't kill you."

"So when you get out of here, you're just planning on killing him," Xigbar asked.

"No." The man raised an eyebrow at the response he received. "If he's asleep, they'll just kill him anyway. They won't bother experimenting on someone who won't react. I'll leave and go find other children to save."

"As if! You're insane," Xigbar shot. Sephiroth shot him and glare, and Xigbar prepared to summon his guns, but suddenly there was of course a blond child between them.

"No fighting in my head," Cloud commanded. "You can fight all you want later but in here is a no war zone and I expect you two to respect that." The adults glared at each other both nodding, Xigbar stepping out of his fighting stance. Cloud was right, this was his head and he had every right to have his wishes respected. He would hold back on attacking the other man until they were back in the real world. "Now let's keep going so I can get you two out of here."

"Do you even know where you're going child," Sephiroth asked, looking down at him.

"Nope," the boy responded. "But that doesn't matter." He continued to trudge on and then stopped, turning to the man. "By the way, my name is Cloud, so stop calling me 'child'."

"I don't care."

"Well aren't you just a bucket of sunshine and daisies," Xigbar commented snarkily, rolling his eyes. The child shrugged and continued with his walking, both adults following him after sharing a short glare.

It wasn't long before they came upon a fork in the road, splitting their path between left and right. Cloud stared at the roads, frowning. Xigbar put a sympathetic hand on his head, standing on his left. Sephiroth stood on his right, and made no move to provide similar comfort to the boy.

"I'm not sure which one to go on..." Cloud admitted. He pointed at the left path. "That one is calling Sephiroth." He point at the right path. "That one is calling you. I think this is where our psyches split."

"So then where's your path," Xigbar asked.

"This was my path," Cloud said. "I think my path combines with one of these, but I'm not sure which one."

"Try focusing your energy on sensing your own psychic energy boy," Sephiroth commanded. "It will at least make something happen." Cloud nodded and closed his eyes, illuminating the path behind them. The adults watched the paths before them to see if there was any change, but there didn't seem to be. When they were about to tell the child to stop, the ground began to shake, cracking open underneath Cloud's right foot. Sephiroth quickly caught the child and pulled him away from the expanding the crack, which split the paths as far back as either of the men could see.

When the ground finally stopped shaking, there was a gaping crevice between both them too large for any of them to cross. Sephiroth and Cloud were on one side and Xigbar was on the other. Xigbar focused his mind and tried to teleport over to them, but found that he was unable to. Cloud must be restricting the use of their powers to keep them from fighting. He stood up, looking over the crevice to make sure Cloud was uninjured.

"Are you okay," he asked from his side.

"I am," Cloud responded. "This side was my path, I have to go with Sephiroth."

"As if! Just have him through you over," Xigbar said. He wasn't leaving the boy alone with that man. "He can go on his own journey!"

"The boy will be fine with me," Sephiroth told him. "I already said I wouldn't kill him inside his own head, so there's nothing for you to worry about. We will rejoin you when the paths come together again." Xigbar growled in frustration.

"Fine," he relented. "But if you do anything to him I will hunt you down and kill you when we get out of here if Vexen doesn't do it for me!"

"Xigbar, it's fine," Cloud finally said, shooting him a look of annoyance. "We'll see you on the other side." The blond boy then led the silver haired man away, disappearing on his own side. Xigbar sighed and looked down his own path. This day had certainly gone in a direction he hadn't expected. He walked down his own path, knowing there was no where he could go but forward.

* * *

a/n Whelp, this developing experience will continue next time on Maruba Doesn't Know What The Fuck He's Doing. Have fun till then my lovelies.


	14. Memories of a Different Time

a/n Gonna keep working on this. Lucky me, three day weekend. It's amazing. Anyhow, if anyone wants a recommendation on a song to listen to while reading this chapter, I wrote it while listening to the Undertale theme on loop so...there's a suggestion.

* * *

Sephiroth looked around as he followed Cloud. The pillars had long since disappeared, and they were heading deeper into the dark thicket, shadows increasing around them. Cloud bit his lip nervously, moving closer to the man. Sephiroth looked down at him and rolled his eyes, moving away.

"Watch your space child," he said to the boy. "I don't want to breathe the same air as you."

"Fine I don't want to breathe your air either," Cloud said. "Your mind is what's making this place dark anyway. You need to learn to lighten up. Literally."

"Perhaps you should just stop being so afraid of the darkness. You're the one who trapped our minds together, live with your decision."

"...You're pretty mean," Cloud commented. "What happened to make you so angry."

"I've always been angry," Sephiroth explained. "It comes from living the life go a monster."

"But you're not a monster. I thought you were a monster but you're just a really angry person."

"Really, child? I'm not a monster?" He stretched out his black wing and allowed his eyes to glow. "Look at this and tell me I'm not a monster."

"You're not a monster." The pair stared at each other, and Sephiroth turned away.

"You don't know what you're talking about," he growled. "You're young. Your mind has not yet been tainted by the true realities of life." He continued down the path and boy ran to catch up with him, having to walk quickly to keep up with his long strides. They walked down the quickly darkening path before they came across another fork in the road. To each side was a golden door, and both doors were padlocked shut. "Alright, so what's this?"

"These are blocked memories, the memories you don't want to remember so you remember them wrong or you don't remember them at all," Cloud explained. "Everyone has them, I see these doors all the time. Only the person who holds the memories can unlock the doors. The right is your door and to the left is...mine."

"Those must be the memories of the fight I had with your brother," Sephiroth said. "Come on, let's go through your door so I can leave." Sephiroth began moving and turned around when he realized the boy wasn't following him. Cloud was staring at the door, his eyes filled with apprehension. "Well? Come on. Let's go."

"I-I...I'm scared," Cloud admitted, wringing his hands nervously. "I don't want to watch Zack die."

"It's never easy to watch the people you love die," Sephiroth said. "But I can't stay in your head forever. We need to get going."

"But...I..." Cloud looked down for a second, as though he was thinking. "I don't want to go." Sephiroth sighed. He'd wasn't going to kill the boy in his own head, but he needed to leave. There was something he could do...but it would make the promise so much longer. However, it was better to get out later than not at all. He walked up to the child and bent down in front of him, staring him straight in the eye.

"Boy, look at me," he commanded. He growled a little when the boy didn't look up. "Child, look at me now." The boy finally did, and they stared each other in the eyes. The man sighed and tried to collect his thoughts. He needed to do this in a way that didn't scare the boy. "Sometimes we have to face things we're afraid of to get past them and grow up. You and I are going to make an agreement. We'll go through your door and you'll face those memories, and then we'll turn back and go through my door."

"Why don't we just go through your door," Cloud asked.

"Because you aren't the only one facing something you don't want to remember," Sephiroth admitted. He stood back up and Cloud tentatively walked to his door, placing his hand on the padlock. The padlock disappeared and he pushed the door open, walking in with Sephiroth behind him.

They walked into a small dark room with a swirling violet orb hanging in the very center. The pair walked up to it and stared at it, and Sephiroth could see shadows running through the orb, but he couldn't quite make out what they were supposed to be. He put out a hand and touched it, quickly pulling back when a shock went through his system.

"That's my memory," Cloud explained. "I'm the only one that can touch it."

"Why is it violet," Sephiroth asked.

"That's the color of these types of memories," the child responded. "Unlocked memories are all golden. I had to do this with Leon too, because he wasn't complete without his memories as Squall, and all the memories he didn't want or had manipulated were purple." He reached up and pressed his hand against the memory, and a beam of light shot up onto the domed ceiling. A scene began to play.

 _"Cloud! That's cheating," laughed a black haired boy as his younger brother made funny faces. The pair were currently playing jenga, and the little blond clearly wanted to win. "I swear if this piece knocks over the tower I'm going to throw it at you."_

 _"No you won't Zack," the blond boy giggled, and continued making faces. His brother laughed harder and the tower collapsed the ground, the piece being thrown at the younger as promised. He giggled and tackled the older_ _boy, the pair of them wrestling on the ground playfully. They both looked up as they heard the door open, and Cloud stood up excitedly. "Mom is back! Mom!" The pair ran to where they could see the door, but the older brother grabbed the younger one's wrist when he saw that it wasn't their mother standing at the door. It was a tall silver haired man who looked like a demon._

 _"Who are you..." Zack asked, pulling Cloud closer to him. The nine year old held his chin up, refusing to show his little brother that he was even the slightest bit scared. "What are you doing here?"_

 _"My name is Sephiroth," the man said. "I'm here to save you." There was a glint of silver, and Zack quickly ran when he realized it was a sword, dragging. He pushed open the door to the_ _balcony of their apartment and pushed his brother through, slamming it shut behind him._

 _"Zack what's going on," Cloud asked, watching him nervously. Zack looked over the balcony to see the dumpster beneath them, and turned back to his brother. He grabbed him and jumped off the balcony, landing in the dumpster. They both resurfaced and climbed out, and Cloud restated his question._

 _"That's a monster who's come to get us," Zack explained. "If we don't run he's going to get us and it's going to hurt really bad, okay?" Cloud nodded and Zack shifted to his second form, a large black wolf dog. He bent down and let Cloud climb on his back and cling to his main. He started running, and only a few seconds later he heard the clattering of garbage, meaning Sephiroth had jumped down after them._

 _Cloud clung to his big brother, feeling the wind whip through his hair. He noticed the street lights racing past them from the corners of his eyes, and heard the sound of running behind him. His heart was raising and he could hear his blood raising through his ears. He couldn't remember being so scared in his life. The run finally ended when Zack's tail was grabbed and they flew away from each other. Cloud growled when he heard his brother yelp, and ran at Sephiroth, punching his leg. The tall man grabbed him by the air and threw him off to the side. Cloud groaned in pain and struggled in an attempt to stand up before darkness overtook his world._

 _When he woke up Sephiroth was gone and there was blood splattered on the wall. He ran out to where his brother was laying on the ground, and knelt at his side. The black haired boy coughed, blood coming out of his mouth, and he smiled up at his brother._

 _"Hey there buddy," he said weakly. "Glad you didn't get caught up in that mess."_

 _"Zack..." Cloud whimpered. "What happened?"_

 _"I had to protect my little brother from the monster," Zack replied. He reached up and ran a hand through the other's blond hair. "Cloud I-I...I'm dying."_

 _"No," Cloud yelled, shaking him. "Don't die! You can't die you're Zack! I don't even know where mom is or how to get back home!"_

 _"Mom is dead Cloud," Zack told him. "Sephiroth killed her coming up the stairs to the apartment, and home isn't safe." He reached into his pocket and pushed a piece of paper into his brother's hand. "Written on here is the address of the Radiance Shelter. Remember? They were on the news." Cloud nodded. "Go there, the people there will keep you safe."_

 _"But what about you," Cloud asked. "They can help you. They'll keep you alive and then you can stay with me." Zack chuckled a little bit._

 _"It's too late for me now bro," he said with more maturity than any nine year old should have. "I'll live on through you. Just keep living and keep being happy for me, okay?" Cloud shook his head, tearing up. "I want_ _you to promise me you'll run there and be happy. You don't have much time, Sephiroth might come back even though I injured him. Promise me." Cloud sniffled and nodded, and Zack smiled. "Thank you buddy." He shut his eyes, his breath beginning to grow more shallow._

 _Cloud frowned, and put his hands on either side of Zack's head. His eyes began to glow and gold flowed up his arms, only ending when the black haired boy finally stopped breathing. The blond hugged his brother's body and let out a wail of despair, sobbing into his chest. All he wanted was for his brother to open his eyes and laugh, telling him it was all a joke. Then he was take him by the hand and they would go home together, wherever home was now. After what felt like hours of crying the blond finally stood up and ran, leaving the body and his life behind._

"So that's what happened," Sephiroth said, glad the incident was finally clarified to the boy at his side. He watched the memory turn gold and dissipate, and realize he could hear soft crying at his side. He looked down to see the little blond boy sobbing at his side, and actually felt a little guilty. He had taken the boy's family from him, his entire world. He meant to save them, and hadn't he? If the he hadn't killed Zack it was likely the pair would have been discovered by Rufus and his people. He sighed and placed a hand on the boy's head, the room dissipating around them. When it was over they were standing on the path. Before them was the path to freedom, but Sephiroth had made a promise. It was time to go to his door. He waited for the boy to stop crying and then they walked to the door.

"Put your hand on it," Cloud said. "I made it so that you and Xigbar can't summon your weapons in here, so that means you can't break it with your sword."

"Why on earth would you do that," Sephiroth asked incredulously.

"I don't want you two to fight in here." Sephiroth rolled his eyes at the response and put his hand the lock. It dissipated and he pushed the door open, walking in with the child. They were a similar dark, small room with a domed ceiling, but there were many, many more orbs, some of them a far darker violet than the others. "Why are they so many more?"

"You're older," Cloud explained. "You have changed and repressed a lot of memories to get this many. It's the most I've seen. Touch the darker orbs, okay? If you get them all then it'll cause a chain between them and release everything." Sephiroth nodded and put his hand on the closest orb to him.

 _A young silver haired boy looked around nervously. He was five years old and his father, a scientist, had just dropped him off at a facility. It was the first time he'd ever been left completely alone, and he was sitting in the middle of the room, looking around to try to find something to focus on._

 _"Oh! Is that him?"_

 _The boy looked up to see two other children his age looking at him through the door. They were dressed in similar hospital-esque outfits to his, and they were both barefoot. One of them was taller than the other, and had short black hair was was slightly slicked back, probably from running his fingers through his hair. The other one, the shorter one, had reddish brown hair that was a little bit messy, and they both had glowing blue-green eyes. The redhead smiled ran over, pulling the other boy behind him. They sat across from him and stared at him curiously._

 _"So you're the new kid, huh," the redhead asked him, or at least it seemed like a question. Either way, he nodded. "Cool. My name is Genesis, and this is Angeal. Angeal doesn't talk all that much but he's pretty cool. We were friends before we came here. What's your name?" He looked down nervously, and the other boy frowned. "Hey, it's okay. You don't have to be scared. Angeal and I can be your pals. We just need to know your name."_

 _"It's...Sephiroth," he mumbled, and Genesis grinned happily._

 _"Nice to meet you Sephiroth," he said. "How did you get here? What kind of power do you have? I can predict the future, or at least pieces of it. And sometimes it's not always our future. There's lots of timelines and stuff so I get confused."_

 _"My father is one of the researchers from the other lab," Sephiroth said. "As for my power...I have this wing." He opened his wing from where it was neatly folded on his back and clenched his eyes tight, waiting for the mocking to begin._

 _"That's so cool!" He opened his eyes to see both the other staring at his wing in awe._

 _"Y-You think it's cool," he asked. They both nodded._

 _"It's definitely better than my stupid power," Angeal said. "All I can do is make apple trees grow, and only apple trees."_

 _"I like apples," Sephiroth told him. "So how did you two get here?"_

 _"My mom got really sick," Angeal said. "I stayed at the house for a few more days and then they showed up. They said they were going to take care of me, but now I'm here." Sephiroth nodded and then looked over at Genesis expectantly. Genesis in turn bit his lip and looked away, swinging his left foot. "Come on Gen, you did ask him."_

 _"Right..." the redhead said. "My...my parents sold me to the lab." Sephiroth's eyes widened in shock. His parents sold him to these people? He knew what happened here, the children here were tested and experimented on. He would have questioned what type of parent could give their child over to these people, but then again that's what his father did. "When they first realized I could predict the future my dad used it for gambling, but when he realized I would get timelines mixed up, my parents agreed to find someone else to take me on."_

 _"I'm sorry..." Sephiroth said._

 _"It doesn't matter now," Genesis replied, smiling. "I didn't even like my parents anyway. They were mean, but even though I'm here with Angeal and now I'm here with you." Sephiroth smiled and nodded. "We're going to be best friends, right?" All three of them nodded and grinned, Genesis slamming his palm into the middle of the table to signify it as theirs._

"You were really close with them, weren't you," Cloud said. Sephiroth nodded.

"They were my best friends," he said, moving to the next dark memory. "How many of these are there?"

"Four," Cloud said. "You have to go through four locked memories, and then we can get out of here. Why did you lock out the memories of Angeal and Genesis if you were so close to them?"

"Sometimes even good memories are too painful to look back on if everything that made them special is gone," the man explained. He put his hand on the next memory and began the next projection.

 _"Hn..." Genesis whimpered, clutching his head. They were sitting on a couch in the recreation room, the one room where they were allowed to have physical connection. Well, Angeal and Sephiroth were sitting. Genesis was curled up between them, his head in Angeal's lap as he clutched both sides and continued to make pained noises. Angeal pet his head comfortingly, trying to gently soothe at least some of the pain._

 _"They've been getting worse," Sephiroth commented. "And a lot more frequent. Did he used to have headaches before you two came here?"_

 _"He did," Angeal affirmed. "They were never so bad he couldn't even talk though."_

 _"It is kind of nice that there is something that will get him to stop talking though," the silvette joked. His friend let out a laugh, and he joined, both of them stopping when their friend let out another pained whine. "Gen, can you talk yet? Tell us what you're seeing..."_

 _"Th-They want to...hurt...kill..." Genesis stuttered, curling some more. His eyes shot open and he looked at Sephiroth. "They're going to make us bad. They're going to make us kill everyone. Everyone. Everyone will die."_

 _"Hush Gen, you'll be okay," Angeal said, stroking his hair. The redhead struggled._

 _"We need to keep fighting them," the redhead insisted._

 _"We already are, the best we can," Sephiroth insisted. "You even bit one of the researchers."_

 _"Don't ever let them get you Sephiroth," Genesis said, looking at his friend with something similar to panic in his eyes. "Promise me! Don't let them drive you to the brink!" Sephiroth nodded. "I need to...I need..."_

 _"You need to sleep Gen," Angeal insisted, continuing to pet his friend. He did so until the other fell asleep, and then looked at Sephiroth in concern. "What do you think he was talking about? Was it maybe timelines getting tangled together again?"_

 _"Maybe," Sephiroth said. "He's been acting weird recently. A lot more nervous around the researchers than usual. Especially Hollander. Then again Hollander has always acted pretty weird towards him."_

 _"We'll just have to wait and see then," Angeal said. They both looked at the redhead, trying to find something less depressing to discuss._

"He was getting headaches," Cloud asked.

"It was a symptom of his power," Sephiroth explained. "With some people's powers they have headaches if they don't release enough energy by using him. With him he got headaches if he didn't look into the future at least once, but he also got headaches if timelines got twisted around in his head. Those were the bed ones, because there was nothing any of us could do to make it any better."

"I get head aches like that sometimes," Cloud said. "That's why I sometimes go in peoples' heads without asking."

"Understandable," Sephiroth said. "Alright, halfway done. Onto the next one." He put his hand on the next memory, and took a deep breath.

 _"Ugh, this is so lame," Genesis groaned, sitting with the other two at their table. "I hate this medicine their pumping into my veins."_

 _"What's it for anyway," Angeal asked._

 _"I don't know," the other boy said. "Probably some weird experiment. It's making my hair ugly and silver."_

 _"Hey, my hair is silver," Sephiroth said with a frown._

 _"Yeah but your hair looks good. Silver suits you." Sephiroth shrugged and nodded. Genesis certainly wasn't wrong there. "My hair suited my too. Now it looks all weird. Must be a side effect."_

 _"Maybe if you ask the researchers to stop then they'll do it this time," Angeal said._

 _"Yeah like that's ever worked," Genesis agreed sarcastically, rolling his eyes. Sephiroth snickered and Angeal looked at them both with a stern glare. He'd always acted like their father, the most mature one out of the three. "Let me guess, 'they must have some honor, they're human'. Honor honor honor that's all I ever hear from you. It's like your very soul is made out of honor."_

 _"I happen to have a very honorable soul, yes," Angeal admitted. "But that's a good thing. It means I can keep you two in line."_

 _"We'll see how long that lasts," Genesis replied with a smirk. He then laughed, but his laughs quickly turned to coughs, and soon he couldn't breath without letting out hacking coughs. After a few minutes of his coughing fit he stopped, putting his head down on the table and resting there, panting. Angeal rubbed his back, but quickly_ _pulled back when he was reprimanded by a nearby guard. "...Well this sucks."_

 _"Clearly," Sephiroth said. "Go to your room and get some sleep."_

 _"I don't want to," Genesis shot back, and the silvette rolled his eyes. Genesis had a tendency to act like a petulant child and had always been very stubborn, to the point of obstinacy. "I don't get to hang out with you guys when I'm in my room and it's boring. They won't even let me take Loveless in there."_

 _"You've memorized Loveless," Angeal told him with a smile. "And yet you talk about me being obsessed with honor."_

 _"At least my obsession makes sense," Genesis fired back. "Now enough of this. I had a cool dream last night and I want to tell it to you guys."_

"So that's when he started getting sick," Cloud clarified. "And his hair turned gray."

"Yes," Sephiroth affirmed. "Even sick he was a bundle of energy. He was a lot like a cat. Smartest man I've ever known, but stubborn as he possibly could be. It was nearly impossible to get him to do anything he didn't want to."

"Did he ever run around like a spring toy for no reason?"

"Sometimes." Cloud let out a snort of laughter and Sephiroth smiled a little bit. He walked to the next memory, the last memory, and pressed his hand against it. "Here we go."

 _Sephiroth was sitting on the couch in the recreation room, talking to Angeal. He wasn't sure why Genesis wasn't out here yet. He was usually the first one in the rec room, waiting on the couch impatiently to tell them about some story he'd thought up or some new connection or theory he'd made with Loveless. Him not being here was...weird. Sephiroth looked over when he heard the door, and saw a pair of wheels connected to-_

"I don't want to watch this one," Sephiroth said, pulling away.

"Hey, wait, you can't do that," Cloud shouted. "If you don't watch then you'll never be a complete person!"

"Hasn't this dawned upon you yet," Sephiroth snapped, turning to the boy. Cloud took an unconscious step back in sudden fear. "No one is a complete person! Everyone has problems! There's nothing you can do about it! I'm not watching this one! We're leaving and I'm getting out of your sick head!"

"That's not fair," Cloud yelled back. Sephiroth rolled his eyes and turned away to storm out. The child reached out and grabbed the end of his coat, and the man turned around, eyes glinting in anger, but then he stopped. He saw the look in the boy's eyes. A familiar, stubborn look, refusing to accept that the world couldn't work out the way he wanted it to. "You promised! I watched my brother die, so now you have to watch whatever is in this memory!"

"...Fine," Sephiroth relented. There was something hauntingly familiar about that look. He'd seen it on a redhead who was very important to him, one who'd died a long time ago. He would go through with this for that look. He put his hand on the memory and took a deep breath, looking up at the projection.

 _Sephiroth was sitting on the couch in the recreation room, talking to Angeal. He wasn't sure why Genesis wasn't out here yet. He was usually the first one in the rec room, waiting on the couch impatiently to tell them about some story he'd thought up or some new connection or theory he'd made with Loveless. Him not being here was...weird. Sephiroth looked over when he heard the door, and saw a pair of wheels connected to a hospital gurney covered by a white sheet._

 _"I wonder who died," Angeal said aloud. "We know it's not Reeve and Scarlett. It's too tall to be either of them. Besides, they're too young to die, right?" He looked over at Sephiroth, who staring at the sheet covered gurney. The man who was pushing it stopped and turned to speak with a guard, and Sephiroth stood up, walking over to the gurney and yanking off the sheet. Angeal gasped when they both saw who it was._

 _Genesis was laying dead before their eyes, skin cold and hair completely silver, devoid of all the life that used to course through his veins. Angeal ran to his side and pushed Genesis's hair back, yelling his name in an attempt to wake him up. Sephiroth simply stared, his blood having turned to ice. Every sound was muted to him, like he were underwater, and everything was blurry except for the dead body before his eyes._

 _The nurse finally noticed them and ran over, calling the guards. Angeal thrashed when a guard grabbed him, but Sephiroth remained still as guard grabbed him from behind. Then suddenly it was as though all his energy had returned. He put out a hand and summoned a long odochi, twisting and slicing the guard in half. Angeal followed his lead, summoning his own sword and forcing the guard away from him through sheer force of will._

 _They both continued in this manner, hacking their way through everything that came at them. Sephiroth could see his hair being turned red by blood, but he couldn't care less. Red was good. He wanted red right now. Red was what he need. He hacked through another guard and turned when he heard Angeal yell. The other boy was trapped in the claw like grasp of an oddly shaped robot, and then suddenly his body was being torn to pieces by bullets. Sephiroth turned to see a young boy with black hair holding his hand out and a young blond girl holding a machine gun. The boy moved to trap Sephiroth, but the teen was too quick. He crashed his way through a window and ran until he couldn't run anymore._

 _When he finally stopped he fell to his hands and knees, letting out a scream that could only be described as that of a feral animal crying out in pain after having chewed it's own leg off. He started rocking himself and cried. He wanted Angeal and Genesis right now, but he couldn't have them. They were gone now, they couldn't help him through this torment, they were..._

 _They were saved. He let out a small laugh. They were saved from future experiments, from future torture, and from this pain. It felt like he was being stabbed and then torn apart. He envied them, they were free. But the lab would get their hands on others. Other children just like them. He laughed more at the thought of himself actually caring, but he did. He wanted to find the children like Angeal and Genesis and save from this future. His mind went blank, his eyes went cold, and he stood, finding the strength to walk and fan out his wing. He would find the children like Angeal and Genesis, and he would save them from this. Then he would save himself._

"...I'm sorry your friend died," Cloud said, turning to the adult. "I'm sorry I made you watch that. Is that...is that why you're so angry?" Sephiroth was silent for a minute or two, trying to explain his emotions.

"The night before he died, he was very sick," he said. "We were at the table, Angeal, Genesis, and I, and to comfort Genesis Angeal started talking about the town they came from. It was a farming community, one that made a very unique apple that tasted like none it. It was like tasting the fruit of the gods. Genesis was so happy to hear about the apples, but then he got very sad. He said that he was never going to be able to eat one of the apples again, or climb one of the trees." Sephiroth let out a sad chuckle. "I was a very foolish boy, but we were all only fifteen, and I thought I could conquer the world if I really tried. I told him that I would get him out of that terrible place, and that all three of us would go back to the town and climb trees and eat apples all day. But...well...you saw."

"He died," Cloud supplemented.

"Yeah," Sephiroth said. The room was dissipating around him, but he was unable to admire the beauty of the room turning to starlight. "He died. It was my fault too. I should have worked harder to get him and Angeal out of there."

"It isn't your fault he died," Cloud reassured him. Sephiroth looked down at him. "He died because of the medicine the researchers were giving him. It made him very sick, and then he died. People do that sometimes, I should know. You did break your promise to him though."

"What promise are you talking about?"

"The promise you made when he was laying on the couch with you and Angeal, in pain." Sephiroth cocked his head, still not understanding. "You promised you wouldn't let them drive you to the brink. He was right though, everyone died. You killed all those children, and you killed Yuffie and Aerith. You let them drive you to the brink, and you let them drive you past it. Sephiroth froze, his breath stopping and blood turning to ice when he realized Cloud was right.

"I...I did," he said. "I broke my promise... I told... Oh god..." It was too much for Sephiroth to handle. It was finally too much for him to handle. He fell to his knees, the stabbing, tearing pain from all those years ago finally coming back. He drove his fingers into his hair, balling his hands into fists and pulling, trying to control the sensation. He bit his lip to hold back whatever pained noise he was about to make, and felt tears sticking the corners of his eyes. Then everything stopped, and he felt a pair of arms wrapping around his neck.

"It's okay," Cloud said. "He forgives you. I know he does. Everyone feels pain sometimes. We all react to it differently." Sephiroth blinked in surprise, unsure how to face a boy wise beyond his seven years of life. He let his arms drop to his side, staring forwards.

"And you Cloud," he began. "Do you forgive me? I've tried to kill you several times. I've killed two of your friends, I killed your mother, I killed your brother. Is it possible for you to forgive me after all that?"

"I forgive you," Cloud responded. "You were hurting, you needed someone but you didn't have anyone, so you did what you thought was the best thing to do at the time. People do that all ti-" He was cut off but the feeling of a pair of arms wrapping around him, and a face burying itself in his hair. "Sephiroth?"

"Thank you," the man murmured, tightening his grip. "Thank you so much you wonderful, incredibly stupid child." After a few more seconds in the hug, he released Cloud and stood up. "Thank you, Cloud." The boy grinned up at him and pointed in front of them.

"Look! The paths combined," he said happily. "We don't have to pick one!"

"That's true," Sephiroth said. "Lead the way." He blinked in surprise as he felt a small hand take his own, and allowed himself a small smile as the child dragged him down the path.

* * *

a/n Okay this was nearly 6,000 words of emotions. To everyone who got this far, thank you. I hope you enjoyed that, including Sephiroth's OOCness. He's a challenging character to write properly, especially in this setting, but it's fun. Anyhow, until next time my lovelies. Maruba, out.


	15. The Good, The Bad, The Unfortunate

a/n Ooooookay sorry it's been a while. Originally I was gonna give Xigbar his own door but I was like nah that's too redundant. So instead I'm gonna let Xigbar get through this fine and be waiting for them at the exit. He's gonna get his own emotional shit later. Work has just been...bleh. I work at a grocery store and it's holiday season right now so everything is just kind of going to shit. Plus, I live in the United States, and with the new "presidential elect" I've been kind of switching between extreme paranoia and depression so...life has been hard.

By the way, if you still haven't read "Finding Our Midnight City", you might want to. Xigbar's character arc is pretty reliant on what happened in that story. Sorry, but this is a sequel. I keep making references to it and I can only hope that you guys understand.

* * *

Xigbar sat next to a glowing ball of light, perched upon a rock next a lake that was the same brilliant color of the eyes he fell in love with so many years ago. Fuck. Twenty-seven-years old and he still couldn't get over Luxord. Hell, he still couldn't forgive Tseng. He understood what was wrong with the man, of course. Years trapped in those labs could break the strongest of people. Hell, he was sure that even Sephiroth was a great guy at one point in his life. Unfortunately, while he had sympathy for Tseng, he could never forgive him. The man had taken away the one good part of those many years trapped in there. Luxord, whether the younger boy had known it or not, had been his saving grace, his soulmate. He didn't know if he'd ever get over the boy.

Shaking himself out of his melancholy and looking away from the lake beside him, he looked down the path. He saw two figures walking towards him, one tall and one quite small. As they walked closer he realized it was Sephiroth and Cloud. Were they...holding hands? Was Cloud stupid? The man wanted to kill, to "save him" in his own words. What the hell was the boy doing.

"Are you ready to go?" Cloud asked as the pair approached him. Xigbar nodded, standing up and quickly moving between the other man and the child. Vexen would kill him if the boy died, and honestly Xigbar would feel pretty guilty himself. However the boy moved out from behind him and back to his spot between the two adults. "It's okay." He told Xigbar. "He's okay now." Xigbar raised an eyebrow and looked at Sephiroth, who looked away awkwardly.

"Some...stuff happened." The taller man said. Xigbar nodded.

"Say no more." He assured him. He knew how weird experiences with Cloud could be. The child was...unique to say the least. At any point a conversation could be life changing, so Xigbar couldn't really question the guy too much on the current change. "So can we get out of here. This ball of light is starting to hurt my eyes."

"Yeah." Cloud said. "This is a door. I don't know why it's a ball, but it's pretty at least. It used to be pure black cause of how unhappy the psyche was. Now Sephiroth is okay, and I'm not scared anymore." Xigbar looked at the ball, and realized that because he hadn't been looking closely enough he'd missed something quite pretty. Behind the bright veneer were colors swirling like snakes. Had they always been there? In the middle was a lock, and there were a pair of familiar green eyes, one on either side of the lock. Cloud put his hands up and the lock burst. The world went dark.

* * *

 _"Wake up. The grass isn't the best place to take a nap, if you haven't noticed."_

Xigbar blinked as he came to, closing his eyes every time the world went dark. He recognized that sharp voice. It was Vexen, the owner of those green eyes he had seen, because who the hell else could it have been? He finally blinked away his sensitivity, and sat up, looking around. He was in the park again. Sephiroth was sitting near him, a bleary Cloud at his side. Vexen was bent down in front of him with Marluxia and Zexion standing behind them. They were looking the trio over.

"Alright, they're fine." Vexen finally said. Marluxia nodded and whipped out his scythe, ready to attack Sephiroth, and would have struck him down if Cloud hadn't jumped up and pushed away his scythe. Vexen looked at the child in surprise. "Cloud? What are you doing?"

"He's not a bad person!" Cloud yelled, his body tense with frustration. "People aren't bad! Just scared and sad and misguided! Why don't you understand this?" The adults stared at the child, each quieted by his outburst. "Sephiroth just wants to do the right thing! So does Rufus, and Reeve! Everyone does!"

"Experimenting isn't the right thing." Marluxia insisted. "Neither is killing for no good reason."

"He didn't know that! He thought he was doing the right thing!" Cloud insisted. "They all are! So am I!"

"Is that why you chose to come back with us?" Xigbar asked. "I remember when we first spoke in your mind you insisted that you wanted to stay. That it would be easier because you were in control of everything. Do you want to help us do what you think is the right thing?"

"I already did." Cloud said. "I helped Sephiroth." He turned to the silvette. "And now you know what the right thing is right? You need to avenge Genesis and help us so that no one has to be scared of Rufus anymore! He's not bad but he's going to hurt us."

"I'll help you child." Sephiroth said. He then looked at the others. "If...you'll have me of course."

"What reason have you ever given us to trust you." Marluxia sneered. He didn't trust the other man as far as he could throw him. Sephiroth glared back at him, and the two locked eyes. "All you've done is kill. You killed two of the children in our care and attacked my husband. Give me a reason to trust you."

"You don't have to trust me." Sephiroth said. "I'll admit I've done nothing to deserve it, but this child has chosen to forgive me. I'm not asking you to do the same, but I have lost things two. I lost my only two links to the world. I have just as much reason to destroy Rufus and his 'projects' as any of you."

"He does have a point." Xigbar said with a shrug. "I mean, none of us are really going into this with pure intentions." Marluxia looked at him with a hint of annoyance. "Oh please, don't give me that look. We are all angry, and we all want revenge. We've suffered, and we've lost. I want to avenge Luxord, Sephiroth wants to avenge his friends, and you want to destroy everything that ever hurt you and Vexen. Vexen, you want to kill off the last remnants of anything that might turn you into Hojo, and avenge Aerith. Zexion, you want to ensure your safety, and make sure that they will never Demyx."

"How dare you say Vexe-" Marluxia began, but Vexen cut him off, holding up his hand and standing.

"He's right." Vexen said. "We want to protect the kids but...none of us have pure intentions." He looked at Xigbar. "You're right. I'm scared of turning into Hojo. Every part of me is a sign of him and I am terrified that if they give me the power and I will turn into the same monster that he was. If they are dead, I can move on with my life." He then looked down at Cloud. "We will keep you and all your friends safe though. From them, and from myself."

"...We should return the facility." Zexion insisted. "We need to call the others and let them know what's going on, and we need a plan."

* * *

Reeve sat on the roof, Cait Sith curled up in his lap and purring as the young man gently pet the cat. He looked up at the sky, pondering the world and his life underneath the night sky. He'd always had a strong connection with the nature around him. His own power was built on it. While he mainly controlled his robots, he was able to control all metal, and when under attack without aid from his robots, he would often create shields out of the metal in the earth. While he had no connection to the metal in the ground right now, he at least had the sky and its infinite possibilities to give him the comfort he sought, and for now that seemed like enough.

"I thought I might find you up here."

Reeve looked behind him and saw his companion standing in the doorway to the stairwell. Scarlett walked towards him and sat at his side, reaching over to pet behind the cat's ears. She would never admit it, but she enjoyed to company of the man and the cat that reminded her so much of him.

The pair had known each other since they were quite young, both of them coming to the facility a few years after Sephiroth. She was six at the time, and Reeve was five, and had come just a few months after her. She was the daughter of one of the benefactors from Rufus's family's programs, a man from England who'd agreed to hand over his daughter after discovering her abilities. Reeve had accidentally killed his parents, losing control of his metal powers and crushing them in metal coffins. He had been so sad and scared, and Scarlett had felt so bad for him that after a few days of seeing him cower in the corner, refusing to talk anyone, she sat down next to him and refused to leave him alone. She took him under her wing as he little brother, and still considered him that to this day. Her only real family.

"Everything down there is too hectic." Reeve insisted, looking away from her and back up at the sky. He wondered if anyone looking up there felt connected to him. He found it interesting that the sky connected everyone on the planet, and yet everyone still felt so alone. Including him. "They're not saying it, but they're worried. They're worried that the outsiders might be a real threat."

"They're not." Scarlett insisted. "And don't call them outsiders. They're traitors. Rufus said so, and we can trust him."

"Can we though?" Reeve asked, turning to her. She raised an eyebrow. "Can we really trust him? I mean, it's not like we really know him."

"You don't have to know someone to trust them, right?" Scarlett insisted. "Trust sometimes seems like a...a useless emotion. Trust and love. They make people weak. You really only need one other person to rely on, and that might even be a stretch. We don't need to trust Rufus, we just need to follow orders. That's why we have each other, right? Trust and whatever?" She ruffled his hair and he smiled a little, and for a moment she felt like she was sitting next to the five-year-old again. "You've been really weird recently. What's up?"

"I've just...been thinking." Reeve said. "And don't you dare say 'that's surprising'."

"You know me so well."

"With the outsi-traitors. What if they're right?" Reeve said. "What if what they're doing is better. I mean look at them, they've built their own lives. They're free."

"No they're not." Scarlett insisted with a glare. "They're unhappy and selfish. We're tools Reeve, that's why we have powers. Them trying to forge their own destiny is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Everyone thinks so."

"Well what if I don't want to think like everyone!" Reeve shot back, and Scarlett's eyes widened. Very rarely did the man ever raise his voice at her. Yes, they fired back and forth at each other with snark and insults, but he'd never actively yelled at her in anger. "I've been thinking about what we do Scarlett, and I feel sick. We _kill_ people. And why? Because Rufus told us to! And I don't like that answer anymore!"

"Why not?" She yelled. "Why can't you be happy with that? It's not like we've been doing anything else!" They were both quiet for minute before Reeve spoke up again.

"Remember...remember when I was seven and I started crying during our break because I told you I was scared of the monster I thought was under my bed and Genesis told me that the real monsters wore white coats?" He asked.

"Yeah." Scarlett said. "I punched him in the face because of that."

"Yeah." He chuckled. "But...he died. They killed him. The scientists. They killed him and he hadn't technically done anything."

"So?"

"The only things that kill innocent people are monsters." Scarlett was silent, staring at her friend. What was he trying to say?

"Reeve...Genesis technically wasn't innocent." She insisted.

"Yes he was." He replied, and she realized that she couldn't really do anything. "As much as he spoke out against, he only ever hurt them in self-defense, and he _never_ hurt us. He wanted to help people, and make the world a better, more beautiful place. He thought he a was hero, like in his book. And the monsters killed the hero, and then we killed Angeal. He was supposed to be a hero too. And we...they...all of us turned Sephiroth into what he is today." Reeve wiped away the tears in his eyes, trying to hide the fact that he was being swallowed by guilt. "At Zexion's book thing, we killed all of those people. So many people, the floor was covered in blood. They were all innocent, Scarlett."

"Reeve, what are you saying?" She asked hurriedly. "You're being weird."

"We're monsters." He said. "We've killed so many people. Adults, children, _everyone_." He turned to her and his eyes were filled with determination she had never seen before. "I don't want to be a monster anymore Scarlett. I don't know if it's too late, but I don't want to be a monster."

"You're not a monster." Scarlett said. " _We_ aren't monsters. We're the good guys."

"We aren't the good guys Scarlett, and we need to stop lying to ourselves to make it all better." He said. "...I'm leaving."

" _What?_ "

"I told you. I'm leaving." Reeve said, and he stood up, Cait Sith in his arms. Scarlett hurriedly stood with him, mouth open in shock and a bit of anger. She imagined she looked like a goldfish, but at that point she didn't really care. She glared and slapped him.

"How dare you!" She yelled. "How dare you try to leave me here alone!"

"You don't have to stay!" He insisted. "You can come with me. We can go help them and Rufus won't be able to force us to do these things anymore." She stared at him, trying to imagine this not being a part of her life. This life had been the only one she'd ever had. She didn't know what she would do with freedom. She didn't need freedom. She was perfectly comfortable where she was. Hollander made sure she knew that her place was as a weapon, that's why her father had given her up. So that she could follow her destiny and be a tool in making the world a perfect place. "Please. Come with me."

"I'm not going." She growled. "I'm staying here. Where I _belong_. Where we both belong!" She took a deep breath to calm down. "You'll realize that in time. Freedom isn't the right thing for us. It's not our destiny."

"I make my own destiny." Reeve said. "...I'll miss you."

"I won't miss you." She spat. "You're nothing but a traitor now. You're not just leaving this place, you abandoning _me_. The one person who has ever cared for you!"

"I know." He said. They were both silent, looking away from each other, each experiencing their own pendulum of guilt and anger. "Do...do you want to keep Cait Sith for me? He likes you quite a bit."

"Get yourself and your fucking cat out of here." She sneered. He sighed but nodded. He bundled his cat tightly in his arms and turned, jumped off the roof and landing about four feet down on a collection of earthly metals he brought together that eased him to the ground. Sparing one last look at he woman he would always call his sister, Reeve ran down the streets and into the darkness, leaving Scarlett standing on the roof, desperately wishing it would rain to cover the tears that had begun to slide down her face.

* * *

Oh my god I did it. I hope you guys enjoyed all those emotions.


	16. A Plan

a/n Oh thank gods Thanksgiving is over. Sorry all you who enjoy it, but for one to me it seems like kind of a joke, and I also work at a gods damn grocery store. In the produce department, which is where they keep all the fucking yams and potatoes and green beans and shit. So being yelled at by customers cause you don't have yams, broccoli, red onions, and brown onions because my supervisor doesn't know how to order for the gods damn holidays. It's not my fault we don't have your damn 50 cent per pound yams sweet heart, the only reason I'm not handing you off to someone else is cause I'm one of like four people on the sales floor.

Aight I'm done with my ranting. Have fun.

* * *

Hours of arguing. That's what Axel had been sitting through, eventually having given up on talking while most of the others decided to best course of action would be to try to yell over each other. He was sitting with Lexeaus, Demyx, and Roxas in the living room on the couch, legs crossed, listening to the yelling that was coming from the other room. Sephiroth did not seem to be speaking, but he had yet to join them, so Axel assumed he simply couldn't hear them. Saix walked in and sat next to redhead, an annoyed sigh escaping his mouth.

"So what has been happening since I left?" Axel asked, having chosen to focus on his phone. He was reading up the latest memes, curious as to why some of his preteen students were suddenly obsessed with evil Kermit and hitting each other with backpacks. For the life of him he would never understand children. That was probably why he didn't have any. He was perfectly happy having his "niece" Xion, Roxas's daughter.

"Well, they've split into three different teams, I think." Saix said. "I was with Vexen and Zexion for a while, but I've honestly given up. Marluxia and Larxene want to storm the place right now as a group. Xaldin wants to pretend to get captured and kill them from the inside, and I think Xigbar agrees with him. I couldn't really hear him over Larxene. Vexen and Zexion want to wait a little bit so there's less suspicion and then attack them. I like their idea, but I see what's wrong with it."

"If we wait too long, then we run the risk of someone getting hurt, or even killed again. Or captured." Roxas agreed with a nod.

"But it's way too risky to attack them right now, since we don't really know the building that well." Lexeaus added. "And Sephiroth probably doesn't know the whole layout. Vexen kind of does, but we want someone who _really_ knows it."

"And if we let someone get captured then we might not get them back." Demyx sighed. He groaned, sliding down the couch. "I want to go play with the kids...this is way too difficult."

"...Okay I'm sick of this shit." Axel said after a few more minutes of listening to the arguing from the other room. "I like the waiting plans, at least until we can find some way to get the building plans. I going to go tell them."

"Axel no!" Demyx said dramatically. "You might not come back!"

"I'll send my regards from hell." He replied, and walked into the room. He was bombarded with a louder barricade of noise than even he expected.

"That'll take too lo-"

"You're making a dumb choi-"

"If you'd ju-"

"Listen to me you reckle-"

"EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Axel yelled, slammed his hand down on the table and releasing a burst of controlled flame to get them to pay attention to him. After the few minutes it took to calm Vexen down, he opened his mouth once again. "We're going with the plan Vexen and Zexion came up with. We need to monitor them, find out many of them there are, how the various shifts work, and what the building layout looks like."

"That's going to take forever!" Larxene countered. "In that time we could all be de-"

"Zip it blondie!" Axel shot back. "If I hear another word from any of you during the duration of this I will light your damn hair on fire." He waited for a minute, almost wishing one of them would do it so he had an excuse to burn something. It had been a little while and his fingers were itching. Fortunately or unfortunately, none of them did. "Okay. Here's what we are going to do. Xigbar you're good at teleporting, so you can monitor the building. I don't want you to go inside though, since you might get caught and I don't want _anyone_ risking that, you hear me? Keep an eye on the building and watch the people going in and out. Zexion, can you read people's minds yet?"

"Not in the slightest. Cloud can. I manipula-"

"The only answer I needed was no smartass. I'm bringing the children into this. So that was how I was going to figure out the building plans. Xigbar can figure out the shift work, but I don't really know how to get the building pla-"

"I know them."

The group looked over at the entrance to see a new man with a cat in his arms, a stranger to some of them. Axel vaguely remembered him, but it was a face Xigbar and Zexion knew all too well.

"You're the man who tried to kill me!" Zexion yelled at the same time Xigbar yelled "It's Reeve!"

"Hello Reeve." Sephiroth said calmly.

"Sephiroth." Reeve said with a hint of surprise tainting his voice. "You're here. And not killing anyone."

"You were in project Crisis." Vexen said. "I saw you on the video tape."

"Yes, I was the final addition to project Crisis, and the youngest." Reeve admitted. He looked over at Zexion and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry about trying to kill you and all that. Truthfully, my interactions with you and the other man have been incredibly enlightening, so I can do nothing but thank you and apologize for the harm I've caused."

"Well, you haven't killed anyone, so that's a step above what this psycho over here did." Xigbar admitted, pointing at Sephiroth. Reeve let out an awkward laugh, not quite sure what to do with himself now that he'd actually gone to the place he'd been dreaming about. It wasn't hard to find, really. They had advertisements for it around the city. The only reason Rufus chose not to directly attack it was due to some odd belief that it was wrong to strike the enemy at their base. You were supposed to weaken them to surrender, or something like that.

"How are we supposed to trust you?" Zexion snapped. "Because you said so? Because you haven't killed anyone? That's a bullshit reason if you ask me. You tried to kidnap children, stole files, and tried to kill me. That's only the stuff we know about!"

"I know but...please try to understand." Reeve begged. "I-"

"I don't care what your reason is!" Zexion yelled, moving to attack the other man. He was grabbed by Lexeaus, who walked in at the last moment, followed by the others.

"Let's hear him out." Sephiroth said. "Reeve went through all the same things the rest of us have. He was doing what he thought was best, just like the rest of us. Can we really blame him for that?"

"That's a lot of sanity from you." Vexen commented. "Why can't you always be like this."

"It comes and goes." Sephiroth admitted. "Reeve, do you want to help us?"

"Yes, please!" The younger man begged, holding his cat a bit tighter. The creature squirmed, and he put it down, letting it walk into the other room. "I want the lives you all do, to have the opportunity to create my own life. I don't want to hurt people anymore."

"And you really do know the building well?" Axel asked.

"Better than anyone else, except maybe the people who built it. I have insomnia, and when you're their weapon, they'll let wander the building whenever you want, so I went on lots of walks at night. I've been everywhere inside of it, I have the floor plan memorized. Why do you need to go in there?"

"We want to blow it up." Marluxia said. Axel nodded in agreement, a vaguely concerning smile creeping onto his face. Roxas rolled his eyes at his pyromaniac friend. "So if you know the floor plan, than you know what the best place for us to hide that bomb is." Reeve nodded. "I say we let him in."

"I second." Axel said. "We can be suspicious all we want, but we need those floor plans."

"And if he's lying to us?" Larxene added.

"He isn't a liar." Sephiroth said.

"If he is lying to us, then we'll kill him." Marluxia told them. "We'll make him go in and plant the bomb with one of us so he doesn't just unset it. And it's not like he could beat any of us in close combat. Zexion said his weapons are robots."

"They are." Reeve said. "I control metal."

"Alright, anything else?"

"I do have one thing to add..." Vexen muttered, though he sounded hesitant. Everyone looked in his direction. "Well, the only bomb I can develop that would successfully blow up the building is remote detonated."

"My powers don't extend to bomb building..." Reeve admitted.

"So what you're saying is that one of us has to die with the building." Axel clarified. At the man's solemn nod, everyone went quiet, unsure whether or not to speak up. None of them knew who should speak up, as none of them really _should._ It was a harrowing and even sickening choice for some of them, and for others, they didn't know quite what to say. Were any of them really willing to give up their life for this?

"I'll do it."

* * *

a/n Ha HA HA cliffhanger! Eh you all probably know what'll happen next. I feel like I'm a relatively predictable person and writer. Or maybe not.

Anyway, first off, Reeve is a precious baby and I will protect him at all costs. The child never did anything wrong so leave him alone. Secondly, why is Vexen not able to make a time bomb large enough to destroy the building. Plot convenience, that's why. I don't really know how else to end the story on a personally satisfying note than with someone dying. This story has actually had far fewer deaths than I originally planned, so yeah. Someone needs to get blown up, the end. Don't argue with me. Thirdly, please review. Please.

No reviews makes me very sad. And it makes Axel sad.

No one wants a sad Axel.


	17. Gifts

a/n Okay so according to my friend Terrorbyte I'm not allowed to bring people back to life. "People die from being killed" were his exact words, I believe. Anyway, I wasn't planning on it but still, he's mad at me for my general disregard for the basics of mortality. So I'm figuring no one gave a shit about the cliffy I left last week, but yay fuck it. I like cliff hangers, just so long as the person doesn't take too long in updating. That's rich, coming from me, I know. I try to stick to a writing schedule, but hey, work gets busy.

* * *

 _"I'll do it."_

Everyone looked at Xigbar when he spoke. It wasn't a surprise, really. The man didn't really have much connecting them to his world, anyway. They all had someone they loved, someone to come home to every night. Xigbar lived alone in his apartment, what did he really have to lose? Still, he was their friend. The thought of letting him walk in there, of letting him die for the rest of them and the children and all these people like them, with the very real possibility that their efforts could be futile, as they didn't really know how many of these people there were out there, almost buried them in guilt.

"Are you sure Xigbar?" Demyx asked. "I'm sure if we gave Vexen time, he could think of something else. This isn't something you have to die for."

"We don't have time Demyx." The elder man responded, putting his hands into his pockets calmly. It almost looked like he was talking about brunch plans as opposed to his own suicide mission. "The longer they're out there, the more likely someone is going to get hurt, captured, or even killed."

"He...has a point." Axel admitted. "It's unfortunate, but we need to think about what's better for all of us."

"Easy for you to say!" Demyx fired back. Everyone was a little bit shocked. Demyx rarely snapped at anyone in anger. In fact Axel was pretty sure Demyx had _never_ snapped at him. "You're not the one who's going to die!"

"Demyx, it's okay." Xigbar insisted. "It's my choice to do this."

"He already agreed to do it." Larxene added. "So we should just let him do it. It'll save us lot's of time in bickering."

"He's still a human being you can't just talk about him like he's some plot device in a poorly written story done by teenager with no social life and severe emotional issues."

"Demyx, _enough_." Axel insisted, once again taking control of the situation, as Marluxia had simply been sitting back, watching the group falling apart before him. Zexion had trying to calm his upset fiancée down, but had as of yet been ineffective. The redhead took a deep breath and looked the younger man in the eye, trying to think of the best way to put what he was about to say without furthering angering the emotional man. "I know it's hard, but this is Xigbar's choice. Not yours, not mine, his. If this is what he wants to do, then let him do it." Axel then turned to Xigbar. "If this is what you want to do then we all really appreciate you stepping up to this, but we're going to give you until tomorrow evening to make your final decision. If anyone else decides they want to step up to the plate, then we'll let them talk about it with you, and they have until tomorrow evening as well. I think this meeting is over. Everyone go home, this meeting is over. I think we all need some time to think about what we're about to do." And with that, everyone took Axel's advice and left.

* * *

Xigbar was lying on his bed staring at the ceiling of his small, dingy one bedroom apartment. He was certain about this decision. It was going to be the best decision he's made in a decade. He'd be able to be with Luxord again. He'd be able to escape this guilt, anger, and sadness. All the memories would finally fade into darkness and with that darkness he'd finally find some sort of safe haven from the cloud that followed him wherever he went.

 _"Xig-..."_

Xigbar sat up and looked around, wondering where the mysterious sound was coming from. His bedroom was as empty as ever. He generally kept it pretty empty, having only his bed in the back corner, a desk for his laptop, and a trashcan. His closet was in the wall. Could someone maybe have snuck in and hid in his closet?

 _"Xigba-..."_

"This damn suicide mission."

"How in the world did you know about that?"

"How would I not?" The ghost questioned as Xigbar stood up, dusting himself off bashfully. "It's my job to protect you from yourself, especially you seem so damn sure of getting yourself killed."

"Your...job?" Luxord took his hands off his hips and looked a little bit more calm.

"Well, I loved you, and you haven't been able to move on. Since they're all attached to me, I'm feeling all these left over emotions from you, and since these emotions make you do dumb things, I follow them around and use them to keep you from getting yourself killed." Xigbar thought back, and realized that yes, he had noticed something weird about that time he narrowly avoided getting hit by a drunk driver because he just happened to trip forward right in time to avoid the car, or the time he nearly committed suicide through overdosing only to find his bottle of pain medication missing. It was only until after he calmed down that he found his pills inside the bathroom drawer.

"All those times, that was you?" He asked. He was suddenly overcome with rage. "You think I want to be alive without you? As fucking if! What do you just not want me around? Huh? Fine!"

"No you bloody idiot!" The ghost yelled back. "Of course I don't like not being able to be aside in your world, the _living_ world! I don't like having to wait for you, but dammit I am not letting you die before you are good and ready, and suicide is not the bloody answer!"

"Says who? Says you?" Xigbar scoffed. Luxord's eyes narrowed, and Xigbar realized he'd almost forgotten how scary Luxord had looked when he was angry. They both stared at each other for a good minute before Xigbar finally agreed to back down, and Luxord followed suit. "...Sorry... I just missed you. It's kind of cool thought...seeing you as a pseudo adult."

"I figured you wouldn't want to look at a fifteen-year-old." Luxord admitted with a smile. "I...miss you too. I'm just trying to protect you. I don't want you to die in the wrong way, the wrong place. You're supposed to die in your sleep, or surrounded by loved ones. Until then, you're stuck in the living world."

"Well shit." Xigbar said with a little laugh. "As for emotions...what do you mean? I feel dead inside most of the time. I used to feel things, I think. Sometimes I still do."

"You do a lot." Luxord said, sitting on the other man's bed, shortly joined by said man himself. "Guilt, anger, depression. You kind of switch between feeling guilty about my death and feeling angry at yourself for feeling guilty. You're like an emotional pendulum."

"And you feel all of that?" A nod. "Shit. Sorry."

"I'm your ghost, so why wouldn't I feel it?" Luxord said. Xigbar cocked his head at the ghost -his ghost-. "Whenever someone loses someone really important to them...that person's soul follows the other one around till they're both dead. I think it has something to with reincarnation and soulmates. You and I are soulmates, and since I'm dead, I get to follow you around until you're dead too. Then we both get to move on to the next life and meet each other all over again."

"That doesn't really seem fair." The elder commented. "I mean, you and I, we don't really get to see each other. If you've been here the whole time, why haven't you shown yourself to me before?"

"It requires a lot of energy to become physical for longer than a few seconds." Luxord admitted. "And yeah, it isn't fair, but neither life nor death is really fair when you think about it." They were both quiet for a moment. "Do you remember that story you told me when we were kids?"

"Which one? I made up a lot of crap when we were in that hellhole to make it better."

"It was about the love story between Life and Death. Life builds gifts and sends them to Death. Life makes them the best that they can, and when they send the beautiful gifts to Death, Death loves them so much that they keep them forever."

"Yeah?"

"Well...I've been thinking about that story since I've been, you know, dead. What if the reason Death doesn't give them back is because they want to make sure the gifts are as perfect as they used to be so they have something equally beautiful to return?"

"Where are you going with this?" Luxord smiled and rolled his eyes. "What?"

"Dense as ever I see. What I'm saying, is that you and I were made as a pair. If Death gives one of us back without the other, then the gift isn't right." Luxord explained. "What I'm asking, is that you don't ruin a perfect present by ending your life before it's time."

"But...I want to come back to you. It was my fault you died I should ha-"

" _No._ " Luxord growled, and Xigbar looked over at him. The ghost was glaring with a fiery passion that really shouldn't be in the eyes of something dead. "What happened was absolutely not your fault. Tseng chose to shoot the gun, I chose to move you out of the way. Please, _please_ , stop blaming yourself. Go talk to a therapist, talk to Demyx, _talk to someone_."

"But-"

" _Talk to someone._ " Luxord said. The tone of his voice made it clear that this was not up for discussion, and Xigbar knew that even if the boy was dead he would never let up on this. He'd find someway to bug the living man till he did it.

"Fine." He finally relented. "I'll talk to someone." Luxord smiled and Xigbar could feel his heart flutter, a weight he didn't even realize existed lifting off his shoulders. "So if it's not my time yet, how will I know when I'm allowed to die?"

"You'll know." The ghost stated adamantly. "I'll come get you. We'll walk to the next life hand-in-hand, just like we're supposed to." The form before him began to dissipate into tiny going balls of magic, soul, Xigbar wasn't quite sure, but it was clear it was time for Luxord to go. "I have to go now... I'll be here though." Xigbar closed his eyes and nodded, sad but also...relieved. He opened them with surprise when he felt something too cold to be human yet too perfect to be anything but this press against his lips, and he returned the kiss that the ghost had somehow bestowed upon him.

When Luxord finally disappeared, Xigbar flopped back onto his bed, wrapping his mind around the conversation that just happened. He didn't want to upset Luxord with his suicide mission, but would anyone else step up and offer to take his place? Clearly someone was going to have to die for this plan to carry out, but he'd promised his ghost that he wouldn't 'ruin a perfect present'. Suddenly his phone buzzed, and took a look at the screen, seeing a text from Axel.

 _You're off the hook. Sephiroth is taking your_ _spot._

* * *

a/n GHOOOOST LUUUXOOOORD.

Sorry I have such a love for Luxord. I mean his battle is a pain in the ass, but he is a character I am so interested in and I really think should have gotten more development than he was given. I mean come on, BRITISH GAMBLER PIRATE. He has a suuuuuuper creative weapon too! I mean it's the only one that's not reeeeally a weapon in the first place. I don't count Demyx because trust me, even without his magic he could probably beat the shit out of someone with that thing if he could stop being so damn lazy. Plus XigLux is one of my top three OTPs. AkuSai, MarVex, and XigLux. The Holy Trinity of KH.

Also that story I heard about Life and Death was something I found online, so yeah. It's not mine. Just saying that right here, I did not come up with that.


	18. The Journey for Security

a/n Bleh...holiday season is almost over. I kind of want to cry from a mixture of relief and exhaustion. The past few days have not been good to me. My dog just died, so coping with that was hard. He was easily one of the most important things in my life. I got him when he was just 8 weeks old and could fit in the palm of my hand, and we rescued him from a shelter. It was during a really hard time in my life too. I was suffering from hallucinations due to extreme anxiety and was even in the mental hospital for a while. I was unable to function outside of my home and right before my trip to the mental hospital I became suicidal. When I got out, there was a little black furry thing waiting for me, and he ran up to me and was just so excited to see me. He played with me, went on walks with me, slept in my bed with me, chilled in my lap while I played video games, and just overall showed me so much unconditional love that was convinced I didn't deserve. My dog saved my life, and I lost him to an illness that is not only rare in young dogs (he was 3 and a half), but also rare in small dogs (he was a dachshund-chihuahua mix). It was too late to perform surgery, and he was no longer finding any semblance of joy in life. He didn't want to play, he didn't want to go out, he couldn't even eat anymore without pain. So we had him put down. The past few days have really, really hard, and I'm even tearing up a little as a write this.

So that's why this chapter is late. That and work.

* * *

"Why do you want to do this?" Axel asked, sitting across from Sephiroth at the kitchen table in his apartment. The man needed somewhere to say, and Axel and Saix were the only ones willing to take him in. Sephiroth had just told him after several hours of silence that he wanted to take Xigbar's spot. Axel had texted everyone this, as they were all willing to take volunteers over one of their own, even though that did sound awful when Axel really thought about it.

"Xigbar has more to live for." Sephiroth said. "Clearly you're all quite attached to him. What right do I have to take that away from you?"

"Well don't you have anything to live for?" The redhead cocked his head at the question. If Sephiroth was going to die, he at least wanted the man to know he had people who cared about him.

"No." Sephiroth said. "But I have things to die for. Cloud showed me so many things I'd forced myself to forget. I have him to die for. If I die with the rest of these awful people then Cloud is going to be able to live free from the fear they bring into our lives, and so with the other children. I will also be able to gain forgiveness from the souls of the children I killed. Finally...I have two more people to die for."

"Angeal and Genesis."

"Exactly." Sephiroth said. "My entire life has been centered around them. When I was young, they kept me moderately sane. During all this time I have worked to protect others from having to suffer their fates. Now, finally, I have the chance to achieve my final soul. Redemption for my previous sins, and revenge against the monsters who tore my salvation away from me."

"They really meant a lot to you didn't they."

"And Saix means the same to you, yes?" Axel stared for minute, and nodded. "As does Roxas?" Another nod. "Humans, by nature, are pack animals. It's evident in every day life, of course, as we all find others to latch onto and call our own. However, it is in our darkest moments that this becomes most obvious. We latch onto each other in fear and and sadness, finding comfort and safety in the mere touch of another creature. Our attachment to this feeling becomes so extreme that when they're ripped away, your entire world is also ripped out from under you. That other being became your home, your place of refuge, and without them all that's left is to feel scared and lost."

 _"I can feel it...electricity, crackling through my body, my blood. The men...they're monsters, torturous monsters. Every morning I wake up screaming and every night I fall asleep screaming without him. Please, please just kill me. I-I can't do it anymore... Not without him..."_

Axel stiffened. He hadn't thought about Reno in years, but every moment of the man's death was truly burned into his mind. He remembered to cold body of Rude laying on the ground near them, the desperate look in Reno's eyes as he spat and screamed and begged to not be left alone in a world that had beaten and forsaken him since the day he was born.

"I understand." He finally said. "If this is what you think is right...then I support your decision."

"I don't need your support."

"I know." He admitted. "But it's always nice to have someone to stand by you." It was well hidden, but Axel was sure he could see a small smile grow on Sephiroth's face. "You have until tomorrow evening to change your mind."

* * *

"So...I guess it's settled then." Axel said, standing in the living room of the shelter. A few of the others sat on the couch, namely Marluxia and Vexen, and Demyx was in the other room, occupying the children's time. Sephiroth was sitting on a nearby arm chair. It was the evening, and his mind was still made up. It was time to look at a map and finalize their plans. The bomb was built, the timer was up, and their revenge was nigh.

"Reeve, is the map almost done?" Marluxia called into the other room.

"Almost!" Came a voice in response.

"What on earth is taking so long?" Larxene muttered angry. "I bet you anything he's using weird metal pigeons to get our information to Rufus."

"That couldn't make any less sense." Vexen snapped at her. Larxene sneered and Marluxia, who was sitting between them, sighed in frustration.

"Will you two stop fighting?" Axel snapped. He knew it was a pointless question. Larxene and Vexen mixed about as well water and fire. Putting the two of them in the same room unsupervised by like giving a pair of territorial cats machine guns. It would never end well. "Reeve! Hurry up! It's getting antsy out here!"

"I'm done!" Reeve said, as he walked into room. It was then that everyone realized what had been taking him so long. He wasn't just drawing out a regular map. No, apparently Reeve had decided to use his abilities to create a 3D model of the building they would be breaking into. He broke it in half and then put a piece of paper between the halves, and set the whole thing on the table. They all got on the floor and sat around it.

"So there's a door right here." Reeve said, pointing to an opening right above the paper. "It's connected to stairs that go down into the basement. It's the only door that doesn't have a code because they made it look like part of the wall. Inside the basement, here, is a hatch that maintenance used to get to the pipelines going through the building. It's just large enough for one adult to go into, so that's going to be Sephiroth. In there, he can plant the bomb. The power of Vexen's bomb with cause the basement and part of the first floor to exploded, causing the build to fall kind of like a squashed pancake."

"We'll want to have herded everyone in there by that time." Marluxia said. "So we need to kill security first and then force everyone into the building. We'll have everyone standing by an exit." Vexen nodded, writing this down so he could make sure everyone would receive the information when he passed it out.

"And what about us?" Larxene said. "Won't we die with the blast?"

"There's going to be a before the blast knocks down the building." Vexen explained. "No one inside would have time to escape, even if they could teleport like Xigbar. However, since we'll be outside, we just need to run as fast as we can away from it. We may get hurt, but we won't die. Just move the second you hear the boom."

"Is that the plan then?" Reeve asked, wanting to make sure everything was understood.

"Yes. We strike tomorrow." Marluxia announced. Axel nodded in agreement, and looked at the 'map' before him. Tomorrow it would finally be over. It would mean closure for him, and maybe he'd feel like Reno some closure as well, even after being dead all these years.

* * *

a/n Well, that was thing. There's actually only one major chapter left and an epilogue, so I'm going to try to crack that out today. My sister bet me Auron's left ass cheek I could do it. It seems like a good deal.


	19. Funeral of Generations

a/n Okay. Final real full length chapter, then I just have the epilogue. I can't believe it. I've been working on this thing for over a year, mostly because I just didn't have time to update it for a long time or would get really bad writers block. Still, a whole year working on one thing and actually finishing it. I'm a little proud of myself to be honest.

Let's fucking do this.

* * *

"I hadn't realized your power was so convenient." Sephiroth commented, watching as Reeve used the metal in the earth around him to unlock the hidden door. It had been very well hidden, simply looking like part of the concrete wall, but the color had been slightly off. There was a tiny keyhole, and the door would automatically swing open when unlocked. It locked automatically, so you couldn't leave without the key.

"It comes in handy." Reeve said, more focused on his task than anything else. "I mean, my robots are obviously the best part, but there's metal everywhere. I can use my abilities just about anywhere." A moment of silence, and then _click_. The door was unlocked. It opened into a dark room, and Reeve whipped out the small flashlight he'd kept in his pocket. He led Sephiroth down the stairs and into a small basement. With another _click_ the door swung shut behind them, leaving them in almost total darkness aside from their technological torch.

Reeve felt along the wall after handing Sephiroth the torch so he could hold it in one hand, the somewhat clunky bomb hidden under his other arm. After a few minutes of quiet searching along the wall, Reeve finally found what he was looking for. He gently clawed along the edges of the slightly raised part of the wall until he was able to pull it out, revealing an albeit small hole in the wall leading into another room. Sephiroth handed the torch back to Reeve and climbed into the tunnel, crawling through into he fell to the other side.

Standing up, he noticed the room had the light that the other had lacked. A lightbulb gave the room a slight but distinct green glow, and before him was a collection of pipes. The room was small, with enough area for one man and maybe some equipment. He would be able to place the bomb in between the two centermost pipes, and then wait for the signal to light the whole thing up. He placed the bomb in its spot, and sat down against the wall opposite to it, leaning his head back and closing his eyes, hearing the already familiar _click_ as Reeve left.

Apple trees. For some reason all he could think of were apple trees. He'd never liked apples very much, but they ended up being so important to him. Who would have known one fruit could shape his life in such an important way. The way it bloomed from flowers in the sunshine, grinning to greet him. The bright red color of the best of them, the same red that could look like warm blood or a cold fire, depending on the day. The way it brought a smile to his face, and the face of its best accompaniment.

"I'm coming back for you." He muttered. "Both of you, it's only a little bit more time."

* * *

Meanwhile, outside, a battle was already over. There'd been a reason why subjects were commonly kept in small, easy to control groups and given little alone time together. In well coordinated groups, they were terrifying.

Marluxia swung down his scythe, killing the last of the guards. A majority of the scientists were already inside the building, and the others were guarding the entrances and exits to the building, ready to cut down anyone who tried to escape their fate. The only ones left were Rufus and Scarlett, who'd been left alive by request of Reeve. The two of them stood side by side in front of the final entrance, facing Vexen, Marluxia, and Reeve. Vexen waved Marluxia off to go join Larxene in guarding her exit. The man was hesitant at first, but left after some reassurance that Vexen wouldn't die. Reeve stayed by his side, staring at Scarlett.

"Well, its just us." Rufus said. "Hojo Jr. and a traitor. I'm afraid this is where it ends. Stand down."

"You seriously think you're in charge here?" Vexen scoffed. "A true gentleman always keeps his cool, even in the face of oblivion I guess."

"Oh, are you complimenting me?"

"No, just acknowledging your delusion." Vexen admitted. "Time to stand down and go inside."

"And die with the rest of them?" Rufus commented, as though he were talking about something as trivial as Dijon mustard as opposed to the deaths of everyone he worked with on the project his family dedicated generations to. "I'm no dog like the rest. I am still in control, and I order you to stand down. You will be reprogrammed and we will make a developer out of you yet."

"That doesn't work on me anymore." The thinner blond sneered. "I'm no puppet to your whims. I know who I am. I am curious, I am a researcher, but I am not, nor will I ever be, a monster. That is what separates me from the likes of Hojo, and from you."

"Oh, I'm a monster, now am I? For finding use in you? For finding somewhere in the world for your kind? Without my family all of you would be lost, pathetic. There is no such thing as destiny for the likes of you, only use. Freedom is but a foolish ideal for those born in chains."

"Freedom is not foolish!" Reeve finally interjected. He was sick of standing on the sidelines, watching the moments go by him. "Freedom is what you told me that you gave me, that you gave her." He motioned to Scarlett, who stood ready with her gun, seething like an attack dog. "All you ever do is lie! You were born a liar!"

"And you were born useless infant." Rufus said. "And right now, you are a useless adult. No one ever really changes, now do they?"

"I change! She can change! It's too late for you but...Scarlett! Please! This is your last chance! You've heard him and what he really thinks of us! Of you! Come with me and we'll build a new life!"

"I..." Scarlett began. She stared at him. Would she go with him? The boy she'd always considered her little brother. He sounded desperate, and even a little scared. It was almost like when they were kids, and he'd come running crying to her in the break room to tell her about whatever horrible nightmare had plagued him that night. But no, they weren't kids anymore, they were adults, and this was real, not a nightmare. They couldn't hold each other's hands and guide each other out of the darkness with soft words and quiet jokes. This was a decision. Would she decide to join him in the unknown, or stay alone in the familiar.

In the end, she guessed, she always knew what the answer would be.

"I can't." She said. "Freedom may matter to you, but loyalty is everything to me. I'm staying here, traitor." Behind her scathing words, there was hurt, but also realization. Realization that now, she wasn't the strong one. Reeve was the strong one. He was picking up and moving on, moving on to something so much bigger and brighter than anything she could imagine. Reeve, whom before this she never stopped looking at him like the little boy who used to hide behind her when the scientists would speak to them, had grown into an amazing man she'd never had the open mind to notice.

"...Fine." He said. "Stay here. Stay here and die. Just don't force me to remember you like this." He stared at her until she turned her back and walked into the building, dropping the gun onto the ground. A surrender, a retreat, and an acceptance of what lay ahead. All that was left was Rufus.

"What? You expect me to go like her?" Rufus asked. The pair of them stared at him, and he began to snicker. The snicker escalated into a giggle, which turned into a full blown laugh. The two watched him, no longer fazed by this kind of behavior, until he calmed down. "Oh that's rich! You think I'm going to back down and rip away everything my family did to benefit this world? Everything we will do?"

"It's over Rufus." Vexen said. "Everyone has accepted this. Go inside."

"No!" He yelled, and Reeve could not remember a time before this that Rufus had lost his composure like this. "I will not let myself be dragged down by you...you subhumans! You don't have the willpower for a choice in your fate! Are you really too stupid to see that?"

"Are you really so blind as to think that's true? Look around you! This is all from us."

"When you fight back, people die." Rufus growled. "You are meant for killing, but you are meant to kill based on your orders. That's it. All I'm trying to do is make my contribution to the world. If I bring you in, than my name will go down in history as the man who secured to ultimate weapon."

"If that's what this is all about, than there's no hope for you." Vexen sighed. "Reeve, lock him up." Reeve nodded and trapped Rufus in one of his steel traps. The enraged man did not fight back. He glared at them, seething in unspoken anger and even a hint of anguish if one looked close enough. Reeve pushed him back into the building, and Vexen brought the walkie talkie up to his face. "Light it up."

There was a boom, and everyone ran. Suddenly the air was as hot as one of Axel's fires, and their ears rung. Behind them the building fell to the ground, and so did so many memories, burying a man they would never forget.

* * *

a/n Whelp, that's the last chapter. Now I just have the epilogue.

And why didn't I write the big fight scene against the guards? Well, when I wrote "Finding Our Midnight City" I discovered that I don't particularly like writing fight scenes. I mean they serve their purpose, and I'll write them when their needed, but honestly I prefer focusing on emotions and relationships and such, so even my fight scenes are mostly reactions and inner monologues.

Anyway, epilogue time.


	20. Epilogue

a/n **YOOOOO!** Okay so this is like lowkey important message.

 **When reading this epilogue listen to Daybreak by Kevin Macleod.**

I mean like you don't _have_ to but it really fits the feeling that I'm trying to convey, and it's what I listened to when I was writing this.

* * *

A light breeze ran across his face. Where was he? Hadn't he been in the basement, setting up the bomb? He got the signal, and then he pressed the button, and he remembered a blast of heat, and light.

Oh, that's right. He was dead.

Sephiroth sat up, not realizing he'd been laying down. The world around him, it was so different. For one, he was outside, on the side of a hill covered in green grass. There was nothing for miles in front of him, and what looked to be hundreds of miles away, the pure blue sky hit the horizon, cutting the world in half. A pleasant breeze drifted through the hair, gently passing the sides of his face and causing his hair to flutter. He pulled his knees to his chest. The view was lovely, but he was still alone. Was this his punishment? To be trapped in this beautiful world alone?

"Hey!"

His head lifted and he looked above him to see two smiling faces. His eyes went wide. Angeal and Genesis stood above him, both with wide smiles on their faces. He looked back down at his hands and saw that he was fifteen again.

"What are you looking down there for?" Genesis asked. "We're up here." Sephiroth stood up, and Genesis hugged him, knocking them both back to the ground. Angeal laughed and sat next to them, ruffling Sephiroth's hair. "We've been waiting for you for a long time. We couldn't leave without you!"

"Couldn't leave?" Sephiroth asked. "You mean...all these years...you and Angeal have been waiting for me all these years?"

"Yes we have." Angeal said. "It fell wrong to just leave you behind like that. Since we couldn't come back to life, we decided to wait here until you could join us."

Sephiroth didn't know what to say. Laying here, with his two best friends, in the shade of an apple he hadn't noticed behind him, everything was overwhelming. This was all too much, and too amazing.

"Well, I guess we can move on now." Genesis said. "Great heroes, moving to the ends of our destiny, together like we were always meant to be!"

"I guess so." Angeal agreed. "It'll be nice, after all this time. All these years of waiting, to finally get to move on. The three of us, together, like we're supposed to be. It was worth the wait." The two of them looked at their friend, who sat between them. "What do you want to do Sephiroth?" As he looked up through the leaves, watching as they gently blew in the breeze, glimmering in the sunlight, Sephiroth realized he knew exactly what he wanted to do.

"Can we...climb the apple tree before we go?"

* * *

a/n

 _Thank you for reading. - Maruba_


End file.
